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 225

District of WELLINGTON 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
289	26 July 1897	Arthur John Liddings Grace Letitia Buck	Arthur John Giddings Grace Letitia Buck 💍 1897/1867	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 22	Wellington Wellington	2 years 22 years	St Peters	97/3057		26 July 1897	Rev. H. C. Waters
290	26 July 1897	Thomas Telle Bakeridge Deaver Caroline Hear	Thomas Pelly Pockerage Sealer Caroline Heard 💍 1897/331	Bachelor Widow	Engineer	40 29	Auckland Auckland	2 years 4 years	St Peters	97/3058		26 July 1897	Rev. H. C. Waters
291	26 July 1897	Thomas Patrick Lyons Ellen Coulon	Thomas Patrick Lyons Ellen Conlon 💍 1897/1891	Widower Spinster	Cab proprietor	43 39	Wellington Birmingham, England	11 years 2 years	St Mary of the Angels, Wellington	97/3063		27 July 1897	Rev. Thomas De Toy
292	27 July 1897	Thomas Munn Martha McLaren	Thomas Munn Martha McLaren 💍 1897/1884	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	33 32	Wellington Wellington	10 years 3 years	Wesleyan Parsonage	97/3079		27 July 1897	Rev. L. W. Bannister
293	27 July 1897	Charles Frederick Duckett Mary Amelia Hart Kirk	Charles Fredrick Duckitt Mary Amelia Hart Kirk 💍 1897/1902	Bachelor Widow	Butcher Nurse	36 37	Wellington Wellington	11 years 37 years	Presby. Manse	97/3097		27 July 1897	Rev. C. S. Ogg
294	27 July 1897	Adolphus Pinckett Stevenson Clara Ward	Adolphus Reinhalt Swansson Clara Ward 💍 1897/1849	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	47 37	Wellington Wellington	18 years 18 years	Registrar's Office	97/3026		27 July 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
295	27 July 1897	Samuel John Price Rosalinda Brady	Samuel John Price Rosalinda Brady 💍 1897/1910	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	24 20	Waverley Wellington	21 years 20 years	St Mary's Cathedral	97/3104	John O'Meara, Guardian	27 July 1897	Rev. Patrick J. Power
296	28 July 1897	Arthur Henry Clayton Lucy Smith	Arthur Henry Clayton Lucy Smith 💍 1897/1864	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	24 22	Wellington Wellington	2 years 5 days	St Marks	97/3052		28 July 1897	Rev. Richard Coffey
297	28 July 1897	Sidney Les Anthon Mary Stephens	Sidney James Anton Mary Stephens 💍 1897/1850	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	20 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years 11 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	97/3027	Rosina Anton, Mother	28 July 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
298	28 July 1897	Arthur Jno. Dunmore Mary Ann White	Arthur John Davison Mary Annie White 💍 1897/1915 Gilbert Wise Lumsden Mary Ann White 💍 1897/597	Widower Widow	Settler	50 55	Lisbon Wellington	1 year 4 years	House of Mr. White	97/3086		28 July 1897	Rev. Charles Wollaston

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).