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 602

District of Hastings 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
28	5 October 1897	Patrick M'Stra Christina Dungan	Patrick McIlroy Christina Dungan 💍 1897/2588	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	27 23	Hastings, Hawke's Bay Hastings, Hawke's Bay	1 week 1 week	Roman Catholic Church Hastings	97/3873		5 October 1897	Rev. Father Smythe
29	23 October 1897	Alfred John Sharp Catherine Alice Neill	Alfred John Sharp Catherine Alice Neill 💍 1897/2589	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 28	Hastings Hastings	13 years 2 years	Registrars Office	97/3874		23 October 1897	M. Brathwaite, Dep. Registrar
30	1 November 1897	Archibald M'Donald Barbary Jarboy		Bachelor Spinster	Carter	40 36	Marakakaho Hawkes Bay	12 years 12 months	Residence of Mr. M'Phee	97/4842		1 November 1897	Rev. A. Morrison
31	20 November 1897	Walter Watson Mary M'Grath	Walter Watson Mary McGrath 💍 1897/3281	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	37 33	Hastings Raikord	3 Days	Residence of R.W. Morrison, Raikord	97/4843		20 November 1897	Rev. A. Morrison
32	20 November 1897	John Smith Johannah Kelly	John Smith Johanna Kelly 💍 1897/3342	Bachelor Spinster	Station Hand	23 24	Hastings Hastings	4 years 5 years	Catholic Church Hastings	97/4888		20 November 1897	Rev. Father Smythe
33	26 November 1897	Harold Arthur Russell Eva Nelson	Harold Arthur Russell Eva Nelson 💍 1897/2571	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	26 22	Hastings, Hawke's Bay Hastings, Hawke's Bay	26 years 15 years	St. Matthews Hastings	97/3879		26 November 1897	Archdeacon S. Williams
34	2 December 1897	Thomas Jones Ester Jane Commock	Thomas Jones Ester Jane Cammock 💍 1897/2590	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 18	Tomoana Hastings	2 years 18 years	Residence of Rev. W. B. Marden	97/3875	A. Commock, Father	2 December 1897	Rev. W. B. Marden
35	6 December 1897	George William Banks Margaret Hearle	George Williams Banks Margaret Healy 💍 1897/2568	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey	26 19	Hastings, Hawkes Bay Hastings, Hawkes Bay	9 months 9 months	Registrars Office	97/3876	Delia Hearle, mother	6 December 1897	Registrar Hastings, Robert Brathwaite
36	9 December 1897	Patrick O'Donnell Mary O'Neill	Patrick O'Donnell Mary O'Neill 💍 1897/3343	Widower Spinster	Labourer	30 24	Hastings, Hawke's Bay Hastings, Hawke's Bay	6 years 20 years	Catholic Church Hastings	97/4889		9 December 1897	Rev. J. P. Smythe

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).