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 470

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
566	26 October 1897	Michael Waller Amelia Ellen Sweeney	Michael Walter McSweeney Amelia Ellen Potter 💍 1897/287	Widower Spinster	Miner Potter	31 24	Coromandel Auckland	1 year 10 days	House of Father of Bride, Remuera	97/4657		26 October 1897	Rev. J. B. Monro, Presbyterian
567	27 October 1897	William Jeffries Hannah Caffey	William Jeffries Hannah Coffey 💍 1897/2448	Widower Widow	Farmer	60 37	Taranaki Auckland	4 years 4 months	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland	97/3740		27 October 1897	Rev. W. Burke, Roman Catholic
568	27 October 1897	Peter Johan Andersen Edith Drout	Peter Johan Andersen Edith Prout 💍 1897/152	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 19	Auckland Auckland	10 years 19 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3668	John Karl, Legal Guardian	27 October 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
569	27 October 1897	David Port Winnie Amelia Smart	David Fort McNaughton Minnie Amelia Smart 💍 1897/3144	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 22	Auckland Auckland	26 years 10 years	House of Mother of Bride, Parnell	97/4641		27 October 1897	Rev. R. A. Macnicol, Presbyterian
570	28 October 1897	William Alexander Helmbrecht May Elizabeth Logan	William Alexander Helmbucht May Elizabeth Logan 💍 1897/153	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	21 26	Auckland Auckland	20 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3669		28 October 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
571	29 October 1897	James Lang Clara Louise Percy	James Lang Clara Louise Percy 💍 1897/2473	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Mangere Mangere	27 years 5 months	Presbyterian Church, Otara	97/3771		29 October 1897	Rev. D. J. Steele, Presbyterian
572	1 November 1897	Charles Wimpsher Alice Maud Johnson	Charles Dempster Alice Maud Johnson 💍 1897/3145	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	25 28	Auckland Auckland	2 years 6 months	House of Mrs. Harker, South Street, Newton	97/4642		1 November 1897	Rev. R. A. Macnicol, Presbyterian
573	1 November 1897	William Francis Wren Sarah Ruge	William Francis Wren Sarah Ruge 💍 1897/3147	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 20	Auckland Auckland	28 years 20 years	House of Father of Bride, Newton Road	97/4643	Father of Bride	1 November 1897	Rev. R. A. Macnicol, Presbyterian
574	1 November 1897	Robert John Davison Lizzie Goodwin	Robert John Davidson Elizabeth Goodwin 💍 1897/2449	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 25	Auckland Auckland	28 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Otahuhu	97/3747		1 November 1897	Very Rev. M. D. O'Hara, Roman Catholic

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).