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 227

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
309	7 August 1897	Walter Tibbith Marguerite Keane	Walter Tibbutt Marguerite Keane 💍 1897/1887	Bachelor Widow	Compositor	20 25	Wellington Wellington	3 weeks 2 weeks	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3081		7 August 1897	Rev. W. W. Baumber
310	7 August 1897	John Albert Bryan Daisy Morris	John Albert Bryan Daisy Morris 💍 1897/1841	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Weaver	24 18	Petone Petone	2 years 7 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3030	R. J. Morris, Father	7 August 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
311	7 August 1897	Norman Duncan Edith Theresa Agnes Tabor	Norman Duncan Edith Theresa Agnes Tabor 💍 1897/1842	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Nurse	23 27	Porirua Wellington	3 years 27 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3031		7 August 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
312	7 August 1897	Richard James Barnes Blanche Hayman Scanlan	Richard James Barnes Blanche Hayman Scanlan 💍 1897/1843	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	35 27	Wellington Wellington	18 years 3 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3032		7 August 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
313	7 August 1897	George Summer Durant Beatrice Marlow		Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Hat & Cap Maker	20 19	Wellington Wellington	8 years 19 years	Christian Chapel, Dixon Street, Wellington	97/3072	James Durant, Father; Frederick Marlow, Father	12 August 1897	Mr. Albert Francis Turner
314	7 August 1897	Henry Stockbridge Susan Wadsworth	Henry Stockbridge Susan Wadsworth 💍 1897/1916	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 24	Wellington Wellington	25 years 2 years	Ohiro Baptist Church	97/3087		9 August 1897	Rev. Charles Dallaston
315	11 August 1897	Robert Albert Cross Mary Ann Bromley	Robert Albert Grono Mary Ann Bromley 💍 1897/1852	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 27	Wellington Wellington	10 years 4 months	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3033		11 August 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
316	11 August 1897	Jerry Carroll Anne Morrison	Jerry Carroll Annie Morrison 💍 1897/1911	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	41 28	Wellington Wellington	9 years 28 years	House of Anne Morrison, 128 Taranaki Road, Wellington	97/3105		11 August 1897	Rev. Geo. Henry Mann
317	11 August 1897	Harry Leslie Eades Annie Elizabeth Hillman	Harry Leslie Eades Maud Elizabeth Millard 💍 1897/1863	Bachelor Spinster	Station Worker	21 22	Wellington Wellington	21 years 19 years	Registrar's Office Wellington	97/3034		11 August 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
318	11 August 1897	Alfred Schofield Lydia Elizabeth Clayton	Alfred Richardson Holdship Maude Elizabeth Clayton 💍 1897/1875	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister at Law	20 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Peter's, Wellington	97/3059		11 August 1897	Rev. W. C. Waters

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).