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 007

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
393	15 July 1897	Henry Carlquist Charlotte Daykin	Henry Carlquist Charlotte Daykin 💍 1897/3723	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor's Assistant	25 23	Auckland Auckland	25 years 6 months	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	97/2635		15 July 1897	Rev. W. Calder, Church of England
394	16 July 1897	Edward William Hido Dee Phoebe Winder	Edward William Dee Phoebe Winder 💍 1897/2376	Widower Spinster	Tailor	60 40	Nelson Auckland	39 years 5 months	The Tabernacle, Auckland	97/3646		16 July 1897	Rev. J. Clark, Baptist
395	17 July 1897	Frank Geoffrey Turner Essie Agatha Moore	Frank Geoffrey Turner Essie Agatha Moore 💍 1897/2331	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 19	Auckland Auckland	11 years 11 months	St. Benedicts Church, Auckland	97/3598	Robert Moore, Father	17 July 1897	Very Rev. D. O. Egan, Roman Catholic
396	17 July 1897	George Roger Weeks Rebecca Knapp	George Roger Weeks Rebecca Knapp 💍 1897/1825	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor's Assistant	26 24	Auckland Auckland	10 months 24 years	St. Mathews Church, Auckland	97/3014		17 July 1897	Rev. L. Fity Gerald, Church of England
397	19 July 1897	Hercules Sandford Burleigh Ada Davis	Hercules Sandford Burleigh Ada Davis 💍 1897/1494	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	24 26	Auckland Auckland	5 days 2 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/2562		19 July 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
398	19 July 1897	Charles Field Catherine Reidy	Charles Field Catherine Reidy 💍 1897/1532	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	32 18	Auckland Auckland	3 years 3 years	St. Patricks Cathedral, Auckland	97/2605	Michael J. Reidy, Father	19 July 1897	Rev. J. Mulvihill, Roman Catholic
399	20 July 1897	Harry Woollams Mary Sybella Watts	Harry Woollams Mary Sybella Watts 💍 1897/1520	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	25 21	Auckland Auckland	12 years 8 months	House of Father of Bride, Onehunga	97/2617		20 July 1897	Rev. J. Brown, Presbyterian
400	21 July 1897	John Edward Makgill Muriel Ravenscroft Devereux	John Edward Makgill Muriel Ravenscroft Devereux 💍 1897/1556	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Waiuku Auckland	15 years 20 months	St. Andrews Church, Epsom	97/2661		21 July 1897	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Church of England
401	21 July 1897	John Shields Edith Clara Gold	John Shields Edith Clara Gold 💍 1897/2332	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	28 24	Auckland Auckland	28 years 5 months	St. Benedicts Church, Auckland	97/3599		21 July 1897	Very Rev. D. O. Egan, Roman Catholic

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).