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 232

District of Wellington 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
85	5 March 1897	John Ashmole Taylor Edith Florence Grove	John Ashmore Taylor Edith Florence Grave 💍 1897/3604	Bachelor Spinster	Paper Merchant	23 23	Wellington Oamaru	years years	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	97/2346		5 March 1897
86	6 March 1897	Charles John Leatham Alice Maud Silberg	Charles John Leatham Alice Maude Silbery 💍 1897/4291	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 18	Wellington Petone	years years	House of Mrs. Silberg, Petone	97/585	Emily Silberg	6 March 1897	Rev. Alexander Thomson
87	6 March 1897	Francis Frederick William Eberlet Harriet Reed	Francis Frederick William Eberlet Harriet Reed 💍 1897/3851	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Campbell, Colquhoun Courtenay Place, Wellington	97/548		6 March 1897	Mr. A. F. Turner
88	6 March 1897	Charles Melton Edith Carter	Charles Melton Edith Carter 💍 1897/3931	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	26 27	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Paul's Church, Wellington	1897/511		6 March 1897	Rev. J. H. Sprott
89	8 March 1897	George Brazier Emma Symonds Slater	George Brazier Emma Symonds Slater 💍 1897/4262	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 28	Wellington Millis Street, Wellington	3 days 1 day	St. John's Church, Millis Street, Wellington	97/563		8 March 1897	Rev. J. Patterson
90	8 March 1897	William James Eddie Harriet Charley	William James Eddie Harriet Thorley 💍 1897/3858	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	27 21	Wellington Kawarra	years years	House of Rev. J. Ward, Rintoul Street, Wellington	97/554		8 March 1897	Rev. Josiah Ward
91	9 March 1897	William Percy James Andrews Florence Elizabeth Tatnell	William Percy James Andrews Florence Elizabeth Tatnell 💍 1897/3932	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 27	Wellington Wellington	9 days 2 days	St. Paul's Church, Wellington	97/512		9 March 1897	Rev. J. H. Sprott
92	9 March 1897	Christopher Columbus McAuley Eliza Sophia Davis	Christopher Columbus McAuley Eliza Sophia Davis 💍 1897/922	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 25	Wellington Wellington	4 months years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/505		9 March 1897	W. W. Wyatt
93	11 March 1897	Charles Westwood Earle Catherine Hannah Wright	Charles Westwood Earle Catherine Hannah Wright 💍 1897/3852	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	25 20	Wellington Wellington	years years	House of Mrs. Wright, Thompson Street, Wellington	97/549		11 March 1897	Mr. A. F. Turner
94	13 March 1897	Alfred Rainbird Burrell Alice Elizabeth Ellis	Alfred Rainbird Burrell Alice Elizabeth Ellis 💍 1897/3922	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 30	Wellington Wellington	years years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	97/525		13 March 1897	Rev. W. Baumber

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).