Intentions to Marry, 1897 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840412, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 25 2025

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

Page 005

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
376	8 July 1897	Albert Tate Elizabeth Marshall	Albert Tate Elizabeth Marshall 💍 1897/1530	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	24 25	Auckland Auckland	24 years 6 years	St Patricks Cathedral Auckland	97/2603		8 July 1897	Rev W. Croke, Roman Catholic
377	8 July 1897	William Arthur Hugh Keith Marguerita Jessie Jackson	William Arthur Hugh Keith Margherita Jessie Jackson 💍 1897/3727	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	27 20	Fiji Auckland	2 years 20 years	St Marys Church Parnell	97/2639	Amelia Jackson, Mother	8 July 1897	Rev G. Mac Murray, Church of England
378	8 July 1897	Arthur Paxton Wylde Christiana Parkinson	Arthur Paxton Wylde Christiana Parkinson 💍 1897/3729	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	32 25	Waikino Brunnerton	16 weeks 20 years	Epiphany Church Newton	97/2611		8 July 1897	Rev W. E. Lush, Church of England
379	8 July 1897	Andrew Alfred Snedden Emma Jane Stephens	Andrew Alfred Sneddon Emma Jane Stephens 💍 1897/326	Bachelor Spinster	Copper Smith	25 21	Auckland Auckland	25 years 7 years	House of Mother of Bride, Wellington Street	97/2610		8 July 1897	Rev R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
380	8 July 1897	Robert Elliot Bell Jessie Rennie Markland	Robert Elliot Bell Jessie Rennie 💍 1897/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 22	Auckland Auckland	5 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church Mangere	97/3116		8 July 1897	Rev S. Lawry, Wesleyan
381	8 July 1897	Osmund Herbert Markland Mary Annie Bishop	Osmond Herbert Markland Mary Anne Bishop 💍 1897/111	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 26	Auckland Sandon	4 months 26 years	Wesleyan Church Sandon	97/2990		8 July 1897	Rev C. Abernethy, Wesleyan
382	10 July 1897	Arthur Ben Roberton Ida Eleanor Pierce	Arthur Ben Roberton Ida Eleanor Pierce 💍 1897/1551	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	25 24	Auckland Auckland	25 years 24 years	St Sepulchers Church Auckland	97/2679		10 July 1897	Ven Arch B. T. Dudley, Church of England
383	12 July 1897	William Western Leonora Holben	William Western Leonora Holben 💍 1897/1492	Bachelor Widow	Baker	32 47	Auckland Auckland	2 years 20 years	Registrars Office Auckland	97/2560		12 July 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).