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 662

District of Palmerston North 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
70	12 October 1897	John Hacketh Elizabeth Julia Swanson Morgan	John Halkett Elizabeth Julia Swanson Morgan 💍 1897/2762	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 years 26 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 19 years	At the house of Alfred Morgan, Palmerston North	97/4114		12 October 1897	Revd William Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
71	12 October 1897	Alfred Henry Charker Mabel Jane Kells	Alfred Henry Charker Mabel Jane Kells 💍 1897/2715	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Machinist	21 years 21 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	1 year 8 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Palmerston North	97/4057		12 October 1897	Major J. Birkenshaw, Wellington
72	15 October 1897	William Henry Rumble Marie Grace Masc	William Henry Rimblee Marie Max 💍 1897/3217	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	22 years 19 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 3 weeks	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	97/4743	Anton Masc, father	15 October 1897	Revd J. F. Patterson, C.P., Palmerston North
73	18 October 1897	Henry Charles Moore Eda Karsten	Henry Charles Moore Edna Karsten 💍 1897/4985	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 years 24 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	5 days 2 weeks	All Saints Church, Palmerston North	97/4060		18 October 1897	Revd H. F. Hault, Anglican Minister, Palmerston North
74	21 October 1897	Daniel Jameson Jane Samson	Daniel Jamieson Jane Samson 💍 1897/2763	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	21 years 19 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	5 days 3 weeks	At the house of Jane Lewington Palmer, Palmerston North	97/4115	Charles Thomas Samson, father	21 October 1897	Revd William Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
75	28 October 1897	William Coombs Alice Smith	William Coombs Alice Smith 💍 1897/2709 Philip Otto Alice Smith 💍 1897/4125 William Smith Clara Smith 💍 1897/129	Divorced Spinster	Farmer	55 years 40 years	Fitzherbert Fitzherbert	18 years 10 years	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	97/4052		30 October 1897	Robert N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
76	3 November 1897	William George Moore Elizabeth Eveleigh	William George Moore Elizabeth Eveleigh 💍 1897/2710	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Waitress	21 years 21 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	21 years 6 months	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	97/4053		3 November 1897	Robert N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North

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).