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 486

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
714	24 December 1897	Edward William Wilson Margaret Jane Madill	Edward William Wilson Margaret Jane Madill 💍 1897/2409	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Whitianja Auckland	9 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3703	Ann Madill, Mother	24 December 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
715	24 December 1897	Adolphus Montgomery Martha Emily Bushell	Adolphus Montgomery Martha Emily Buchell 💍 1897/286	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	20 21	Auckland Auckland	3 days 3 months	Presbyterian Church, Auckland	97/4656	William Shore, Father	24 December 1897	Rev. R. A. Macmeol, Presbyterian
716	24 December 1897	Alexander Liddle Ada McCracken	Alexander Liddle Sarah Ada McCracken 💍 1897/2424	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	31 21	Auckland Mount Eden	7 years 21 months	House of Mr. Smith	97/3721		24 December 1897	Rev. J. A. Jones, Baptist
717	24 December 1897	Stephen Chester McBallum Maud Annie McBallum		Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 21	Auckland Alexandra Street	3 days 2 years	Primitive Methodist Church	97/4716		24 December 1897	Rev. C. E. Hard, Primitive Methodist
718	24 December 1897	James Dawson Morgan Emma Selina Morgan	James Dawson Crawford Emma Celine Morgan 💍 1897/2489	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	29 25	Auckland Donsonby	6 months 4 months	House of Mother of Bride, Clarence Street	97/3764		24 December 1897	Rev. J. Sharp, Primitive Methodist
719	24 December 1897	Arthur Frederick Hendel Brunetta Hendel	Arthur Trevethick Brunetta Wendel 💍 1897/2410	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturer	28 34	Auckland Auckland	4 years 20 months	Registrar's Office	97/3704		24 December 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
720	24 December 1897	Henry Bagust McQuarrie Eva Quarrie		Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 20	Ruaotunu Kingsland	2 1/2 years 20 months	House of Father of Bride	97/4835	Hector, Father	24 December 1897	Rev. R. P. West, Presbyterian
721	24 December 1897	Herbert Sanderson Littleton Eliza Ann Littleton	Herbert Sanderson Eliza Ann Lyttelton 💍 1897/2446	Bachelor Spinster	Dinsmith	27 21	Taranaki Taranaki	3 months 20 months	St. Sepulchres Church, Auckland	97/3744		24 December 1897	Rev. Arch. B. I. Dudley, Church of England
722	24 December 1897	Albert Hope Brown Katherine Mabel Brown	Albert Lyne Browne Katherine Mabel Brown 💍 1897/3364	Bachelor Spinster	Constructing Linesman	28 25	Auckland Devonport	18 months 15 years	Church of England	97/4928		24 December 1897	Rev. P. Hawthorne, Church of England

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).