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 467

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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
547	14 October 1897	Daniel McCurdy Edith May Baker	Daniel McCurdy Edith May Baker 💍 1897/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 21	Thames Thames	27 years	St. Paul's Church, Auckland	97/4554		14 October 1897	Rev. C. W. Nelson, Church of England
548	14 October 1897	Samuel Cornwall Eleanor Harriet Rowe	Samuel Thornalley Eleanor Harriet Rowe 💍 1897/2436	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 17	Paeroa Paeroa	1 year	House of Mrs. Hedley, 3 Bros. Mount Eden, Church of Christ	97/3710	Mother	14 October 1897	Rev. H. E. Gillam, Church of England
549	14 October 1897	Robert McCallum Annie Kathleen Walker	Robert McCallum Annie Kathleen Walker 💍 1897/2434	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	38 25	Wairoa South Ellerslie	1 year	Church of England	97/3731		14 October 1897	Rev. J. E. Gillam, Church of England
550	15 October 1897	Herman Evans Edith Clara Preform	German Evans Edith Clara Gregory 💍 1897/378	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	21 20	Auckland Pukekohe	9 months 20 years	House of Father of Bride	[illegible]	John Preform, Father of Bride	15 October 1897	Rev. O. R. Hewlett, Church of England
551	18 October 1897	John Fraser Burnett Nellie Chaplin	John Fraser Burnett Nellie Chaplin 💍 1897/3279	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 21	Auckland Auckland	22 years 21 years	House of Father of Bridegroom, Newton Road	97/4827		18 October 1897	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
552	18 October 1897	Francis Ormsby Luceum Christina Buchanan		Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	23 17	Auckland Parnell	23 years 12 years	House of Father of Bride, St. Sepulchre's	97/4717	Alexander Buchanan, Father of Bride	18 October 1897	Rev. A. Mitchell, Wesleyan
553	18 October 1897	Harry Bates Philcose Annie Beedell		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 21	Auckland Auckland	21 years 21 years	Church of England	97/3738		18 October 1897	Rev. W. B. D. Dudley, Church of England
554	19 October 1897	Edgar Hastings Jane MacKay	Edgar Bastings Jane Mackay 💍 1897/3142	Widower Spinster	Hotel Keeper	42 30	Auckland Auckland	7 months 5 years	Church	97/4639		19 October 1897	Rev. R. D. Macnicol, Presbyterian
555	19 October 1897	George Lloyd Isabel Alice Walker	George Floyd Mabel Alice Walker 💍 1897/3184	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 19	Waikawau Auckland	2 months 5 years	Church of England	97/4709	Florence Ellen Winker, Mother of Bride	19 October 1897	Rev. J. Fould, Church of England
556	20 October 1897	Alexander James Kirkwood Campbell Margaret Cram Corrifan	Alexander James Kirkwood Campbell Margaret Mary Corrigan 💍 1897/150	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	26 23	Paima Paima	1 year 9 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3666		20 October 1897	P. H. Lyons, Registrar

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).