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 472

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1899

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
584	3 November 1899	Claude Leeson Elsie Kathleen Wartelle	Claude Leeson Martelli Elsie Kathleen Butler Lusk 💍 1897/2465	Bachelor	Accountant	37 24	Auckland Auckland	18 years 18 years	St Sepulchre's Church	99/3739		3 November 1899	Rev. Arch. B. D. Dudley, Church of England
585	4 November 1899	Fred Harrison Bishop Ellen Maria Bishop	Fred Harrison Ellen Maria Bishop 💍 1897/158	Bachelor	Farmer	27 19	Taranaki Auckland	27 months 9 years	Registrar's Office	99/3674		4 November 1899	E. Hlyons, Registrar
586	4 November 1899	William Butler Roderick Selina Agnes Roderick	William Butler Selina Agnes Roderick 💍 1897/2425	Bachelor	Brass-finisher	23 23	Auckland Auckland, Pitt Street	15 months 23 years	House of Father of Bride	99/3722		4 November 1899	Rev. A. Peters, Wesleyan
587	4 November 1899	Francis George Henry White Anne Waterreus	Francis George Henry White Annie Waterreus 💍 1897/159	Bachelor	Mariner	25 22	Auckland Auckland	24 months 7 years	Registrar's Office	99/3675		4 November 1899	E. Hlyons, Registrar
588	5 November 1899	John Penfus Coleman Catherine Charlotte Coleman	John Fergus Catherine Charlotte Coleman 💍 1897/3149	Bachelor	Labourer	36 23	Auckland Auckland	36 years 23 years	St James Church	99/4645		5 November 1899	Rev. P. J. Macnicol, Presbyterian
589	6 November 1899	George Frederick Mellars Alice French	George Frederick Mellars Alice French 💍 1897/3062	Bachelor	Mining Agent	31 27	Coromandel Coromandel	10 months 20 years	St Matthew's Church	99/4549		6 November 1899	Rev. L. Fitzgerald, Church of England
590	6 November 1899	John Raper Campbell Elizabeth Campbell	John Lupis Elizabeth Campbell 💍 1897/161	Bachelor Widow	Digger	32 31	Ohura Ohura	4 years	Registrar's Office	99/3676		6 November 1899	E. Hlyons, Registrar
591	8 November 1899	Colin McIntosh Mary Ann Heatley	Colin McIntosh Mary Ann Keatley 💍 1897/162	Bachelor	Farmer	22 19	Auckland Auckland	22 months 10 years	Registrar's Office	99/3677	Mother of Bride	8 November 1899	E. Hlyons, Registrar
592	8 November 1899	Thomas Donohue Annie Haughton	Thomas Donohue Annie Naughton 💍 1897/2450	Widower Spinster	Miner	42 29	Auckland Auckland	6 months 29 years	St Patrick's Cathedral	99/3748		8 November 1899	Rev. W. Groke, Roman Catholic
593	8 November 1899	Whiston Walsh Ida Lucy Redgate Powell		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 21	Hamilton Auckland	3 years 10 years	House of Father of Bride	99/4652		8 November 1899	Rev. J. B. Monro, Presbyterian

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).