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 480

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
657	2 December 1897	John MacCullough Sarah Fraser Kelly	John McCullough Sarah Fraser Kelly 💍 1897/3577	Bachelor Spinster	Cafe Manager	29 27	Auckland Auckland	29 years 25 years	St David's Presbyterian Church	97/4834		2 December 1897	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
658	2 December 1897	Michael Coughlan Alice May Humphrey	Michael Coughlan Dignan Alice May Murphy 💍 1897/2809	Bachelor Spinster	Artist	34 20	Auckland Auckland	34 years 17 years	St Benedict's Church	97/4212	Father of Bride	2 December 1897	Rev. C. O'Callaghan, Roman Catholic
659	3 December 1897	Peter MacEwan Anne Eliza Christmas	Peter McElwain Annie Eliza Christmas 💍 1897/2444	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Inspector	25 20	Auckland Auckland	15 months 20 years	St Matthew's Church	97/3712	Father of Bride	3 December 1897	Rev. Arch. B. D. Dudley, Church of England
660	3 December 1897	John Thompson Laura Albert	John Thompson Laura Gilbert 💍 1897/3122 John Thompson Mary Attly 💍 1898/3986	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	30 23	Auckland Auckland	10 years 15 months	Parnell Church	97/4599		3 December 1897	Rev. J. MacMurray, Church of England
661	3 December 1897	Frederick Adolphus Waterman Sarah Amelia Twose	Frederick Adolphus Waterman Sarah Amelia Twose 💍 1897/3180	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	24 28	Auckland Auckland	6 months 3 days	House of Rev. J. Clark, Grafton Road	97/4705		3 December 1897	Rev. J. Clark, Baptist
662	3 December 1897	Walter Thomas Darnell Annie Ethel Boles	Walter Thomas Payne Annie Ethel Boles 💍 1897/2445	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	39 28	Auckland Auckland	24 years 22 years	St Sepulchre's Church	97/3743		3 December 1897	Rev. Arch. B. D. Dudley, Church of England
663	4 December 1897	Jesse Morgan Richard Wilton Amor		Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	30 28	Auckland Auckland	30 years 2 1/2 years	Registrar's Office	97/3694		4 December 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
664	6 December 1897	Emilius Brean Mary Catherine William	Emilius Stream Mary Catherine Mulligan 💍 1897/3366 Emilius Stream Mary Catherine Mulligan 💍 1897/3128	Bachelor Widow	Carrier	41 43	Thames Thames	2 years 20 years	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	97/4600		6 December 1897	Rev. W. Calder, Church of England
665	6 December 1897	Benjamin Burrall Jane Humphrey	Benjamin Burrall Mills Jane Murphy 💍 1897/2487 Benjamin Tarrant Mabel Amelia Jane Humphreys 💍 1897/2901	Bachelor Widow	Storeman	31 25	Auckland Auckland	20 years 25 years	House of Father of Bride, Anglesea Street	97/3762	Father of Bride	6 December 1897	Rev. J. Sharp, Primitive Methodist
666	6 December 1897	Thomas Brown Rhoda Witheridge	Thomas Brown Rhoda Witheridge 💍 1897/264	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	24 21	Pokeno Auckland	23 months 21 years	House of Father of Bride, Haslett Street	97/4649	Father of Bride	6 December 1897	Rev. R. Macnicol, 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).