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 189

District of Feilding 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
509	10 July 1897	George William Ward Pocock Honor Margaret Jane Turner	George William Ward Pocock Honor Margaret Jane Turner 💍 1897/1774	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	25 26	Feilding Feilding	5 years 5 years	Registrars Office, Feilding	97/2933	10 July 1897	J. H. Stevens
510	20 July 1897	William Frederick Carman Minnie Thomas	William Frederick Carman Minnie Thomas 💍 1897/1775	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 22	Feilding Feilding	11 years 22 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Feilding	97/2934	20 July 1897	Major J. Birrenshaw
511	27 July 1897	Ralph John Evans Elizabeth Young	Ralph John Evans Elizabeth Young 💍 1897/1776	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 24	Colyton Colyton	8 days 8 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	97/2935	27 July 1897	J. H. Stevens
512	7 August 1897	Henry Porcher Hance Ella Beatrice Monckton	Henry Porcher Lance Ella Beatrice Monckton 💍 1897/1777	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 21	Feilding Feilding	3 days 11 years	Church of England, Feilding	97/2936	7 August 1897	A. S. J. Jones
513	12 August 1897	Charles Louis Andrew Hillmer Mary Elizabeth Fearn	Charles Louis Andrew Hillmer Mary Elizabeth Fearn 💍 1897/1708	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	27 25	Feilding Stratford	1 year 8 months 6 months	Church of England, Stratford	97/2863	12 August 1897	W. D. Boyes
514	24 August 1897	Victor Alexander Martin Rose Parsons	Victor Alexander Martin Rose Pawson 💍 1897/3486	Bachelor Spinster	Fishmonger	22 22	Feilding Feilding	5 years 18 years	Registrars Office, Feilding	97/2937	24 August 1897	J. F. Martin
515	30 August 1897	Daniel Huerston Janet Currie Kerr	Daniel Thurston Janet Currie Kerr 💍 1897/1778	Widower Spinster	Farmer	47 21	Feilding Feilding	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office, Feilding	97/2938	30 August 1897	J. F. Martin
516	14 September 1897	Alexander Arbuckle Mary Campbell	Alexander Arbuckle Mary Campbell 💍 1897/1780	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 35	Feilding Feilding	4 days 8 years	At the residence of the Brides mother, Warwick Street, Feilding	97/2939	14 September 1897	C. C. Harrison
517	15 September 1897	Charles Edward Darvill Louisa Mayhew	Charles Edwards Darrill Louisa Mayhew 💍 1897/1781	Bachelor Spinster	Store Manager	30 23	Taikape Waituna	13 months 1 week	At the residence of the Brides father, Robert Mayhew, Waituna	97/2940	15 September 1897	J. W. J. Spence

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).