Intentions to Marry, 1897 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840411, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 25 2025

1897 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 381

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1897

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
20	20 January 1897	John Dyer Bridget Charley	John Dyer Bridget Charley 💍 1897/4727	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	38 years 26 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	1 week 1 week	St. Patrick's Church	97/974		20 January 1897	Rev. P. O'Neill, Roman Catholic Priest
21	20 January 1897	George Cross Martha Cormack	George Cross Martha Cormack 💍 1897/4518	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 20 years	Portobello Portobello	5 years 13 years	In the house of John Cormack	97/1004	John Cormack, father of bride	20 January 1897	Rev. A. Greig, Presbyterian Minister
22	20 January 1897	Thomas Lane Martin Doris Mandeville Knewstub	Thomas Lane Martin Doris Manderville Knewstub 💍 1897/3407	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	22 years 24 years	Roslyn Dunedin	22 years 11 months	In the house of Rev. Isaac Rickman McIntyre	97/980		20 January 1897	Rev. R. McIntyre, Presbyterian Minister
23	23 January 1897	Hermann Tankersley Dodds May Mood Long	Hermann Tankusley Dodd May Wood Long 💍 1897/4530	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 years 24 years	Dunedin Woodhaugh	5 years 11 years	In the house of Robert Long, Woodhaugh	97/993		23 January 1897	Rev. H. E. Bellhouse, Wesleyan Minister
24	25 January 1897	John Nathaniel Martins Euphemia Hoy Beath	John Nathaniel Mortin Euphemia Hoy Beath 💍 1897/4529	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	26 years 26 years	North East Valley North East Valley	10 years 12 years	In the Presbyterian Church	97/992		25 January 1897	Rev. D. Borrie, Presbyterian Minister
25	26 January 1897	Francis Henry Westwoods Gertrude Chettleburgh	Francis Henry Westwood Gertrude Chettleburgh 💍 1897/4477	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 years 22 years	Caversham Maori Hill	4 years 16 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	97/935		26 January 1897	M. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
26	27 January 1897	Charles Henry Mawers Sarah Ann Emily Gibbs	Charles Henry Mawer Sarah Ann Emily Gibbs 💍 1897/4484	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	34 years 24 years	St. Kilda St. Kilda	3 years 10 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	97/936		27 January 1897	M. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriage

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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What is an Intention to Marry?

The 1854 Marriage Act required Pakeha settlers (and later Maori) to register their intention to marry from 1855. The resulting Notices of intention to marry were sent by the district registrars to the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages and bound into large volumes, each containing a year of notices. These registers were eventually deposited with Archives New Zealand.

What information does an ItM record?

A typical Intention to Marry notice records:

the bride and groom's full names
occupation of the groom (and sometimes the bride)
their ages
district where the marriage would take place
how long they had resided in the district
Where the marriage would take place (eg, a specific church)
Who would officiate the marriage (eg, a minister)
The date of the notice and also a date when the certificate was issued. Marriages had to take place within 3 months, and usually occurred within a week or so of the certificate date.
If one of the parties was under 21, a parent who consented to their marriage was usually specified

These details can provide clues for genealogical and historical research. Knowing the date and district makes it easier to look for wedding notices in Papers Past, and the amount of time that the parties had resided in a district can offer clues to whether a person was born in NZ, or when they immigrated.

However, finding individual records in the Intentions to Marry registers was typically a slow and manual process, usually requiring an in-person visit to Archives NZ's Wellington office (during limited opening hours) and using a handwritten card catalogue index to look up individual names.

Eight years of the registers had been digitised by Archives NZ prior to 2024, but even these digital versions required the use of a manual index and usually examining several pages to locate specific records.

What is the Intentions to Marry Project?

This project aims to transcribe the New Zealand Intentions to Marry registers (from 1855 to 1925) with the assistance of new technology (AI), making the records freely available and easily searchable.

The ITM records have also been cross-referenced with the registered marriages at DIA Births, Deaths and Marriages, where possible (a small fraction of the recorded intentions to marry did not become a registered marriage).

Currently we have almost all records between 1855 and 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

The project is led by Luke Howison, a web developer who made the free genealogical research search tool NZ Ancestor Search Helper and Archway-style Collections Search. There are also some wonderful volunteers assisting with digitising the registers.

Can I volunteer to help?

Yes, you can! You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

I am also looking for Wellington-based volunteers to help me digitise more years of the registers. I can provide lighting equipment and a 'clicker' (to trigger your phone's camera).

How is the transcription done?

There are several steps to digitising and transcribing the records:

Digitising the registers (taking clean, straight, high-quality photos)
Processing the digitised pages by straightening, cropping and sharpening the images
Transcribing each page with a combination of AI tools
Matching each ITM with a registered marriage when possible
Human verification of the transcribed information

The main LLM (AI) used are the Google Gemini Pro and Flash models, which have excellent 'Vision' capabilities, and a generous free tier.

Archives NZ has released the register years they have digitised (1865-69, 1872, 1874 and 1880) under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license.

The Intention to Marry registers (up to 1925) are more than 100 years old, so their Crown Copyright has expired, putting them in the public domain. This also applies to any 'mechanical reproductions' (eg, pictures or photocopies) of their content without substantial alteration.

The transcribed records on this website are released under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal license, which allows reusers to distribute, remix, adapt, and build upon the material in any medium or format, even for commercial purposes, while giving credit to the creator (NZ Intentions to Marry Project).