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 281

District of Hokitika 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
13	5 July 1897	Samuel Perry Helvetia Piazzi	Samuel Perry Helvetia Piazzie 💍 1897/2823	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	25 24	Waimea Waimea	25 years 24 years	Residence of W. Henz, Hokitika	97/4204		5 July 1897	Rev. W. Douglas, Presbyterian Minister
14	13 July 1897	John Mulligan Helena Herd	John Mulligan Helena Herd 💍 1897/1999	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	28 20	Woodstock Woodstock	4 years 20 years	Registrars Office	97/3189	Thomas Herd, father	13 July 1897	A. E. Cresswell, Registrar
15	2 August 1897	David Howlor Mary Gallagher	David Lawlor Mary Gallagher 💍 1897/2002	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	50 35	Hokitika Kanieri Forks	20 years 20 years	Hospital, Hokitika	97/3192		2 August 1897	Rev. A. Hepetit, Roman C. Minister
16	17 August 1897	Alfred Welch Margarete Hazlet Gran	Alfred Welch Margaret Hazlette Cran 💍 1897/1982	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Domestic	25 27	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 27 years	Residence of P. Gran	97/3194		17 August 1897	Rev. W. Douglas
17	24 August 1897	William George Coburn Mary Hebley	William George Coburn Mary Hebley 💍 1897/2000	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	28 30	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	97/3190		24 August 1897	Romulus Blakley, Deputy Registrar
18	1 September 1897	Alexander Aitken Janet Stevenson	Alexander Aitken Janet Stevenson 💍 1897/1983 James Alexander Wright Janet Stevenson 💍 1897/1319	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Dressmaker	31 29	Hokitika Hokitika	31 years 27 years	Residence of D. Stevenson	97/3195		1 September 1897	Rev. W. Douglas
19	7 September 1897	James McKenna Alice Cropper	James McKenna Alice Cropper 💍 1897/2001	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic	47 29	Kanieri Kanieri	2 years 20 months	Registrars Office	97/3191		7 September 1897	Romulus Blakley, Deputy Registrar
20	20 September 1897	Edmund Dale Margaret Ward	Edmund Dale Margaret Ward 💍 1897/1981	Bachelor Spinster	Miner School Teacher	28 27	Kanieri Hokitika	28 years 27 years	Roman Catholic Church	97/3193		20 September 1897	Dean Martin, R. Catholic Priest
21	28 September 1897	Henry Ralph King Louisa Joyce	Henry Ralph King Louisa Joyce 💍 1897/1984	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	25 22	Goldsborough Goldsborough	25 years 18 months	Residence of John Reedy, Goldsborough	97/3196		28 September 1897	Rev. Edwin Whitehouse, Episcopalian Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).