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 683

District of Wellington 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
390	25 October 1897	Joseph Perry Florence Worman	Joseph Perry Florence Norman 💍 1897/203	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 22 years	Registrar's Office	97/3002		25 October 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
391	25 October 1897	James Smith Amelia Elizabeth Ann Haines	James Smith Amelia Elizabeth Ann Haines 💍 1897/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 19	Wellington Mitchelltown	2 years 19 years	House of Mr. J. H. Rogers	97/3948	John William Haines	25 October 1897	Rev. William Baumber
392	26 October 1897	Archibald McLeod Elizabeth Drummond	Archibald McLeod Wilson Elizabeth Drummond 💍 1897/308	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	29 29	Wellington Wellington	29 years 20 years	St. John's Church	97/4748		26 October 1897	Rev. James Paterson
393	26 October 1897	Robert Henry Rigelsford Lillian Adelaide Fitzgerald	Robert Henry Rigarlsford Lillian Adelaide Fitzgerald 💍 1897/2593	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 20	Wellington Wellington	13 years 20 years	St. Peter's Church	97/3928	Elizabeth Margaret Fitzgerald	26 October 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters
394	26 October 1897	Samuel Kounsell Cropp Margaret Ellen Thomas		Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	36 37	Kaiwarra Kaiwarra	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	97/3003		26 October 1897	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
395	26 October 1897	William Henry Berry Edith Amy Dyer	William Henry Derry Edith Amy Dyer 💍 1897/3071	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Secretary	34 24	Napier Karori	7 months 9 months	St. Mary's Church	97/4566		26 October 1897	Rev. Peter Lochiel Mitchell Cameron
396	26 October 1897	Haleyon Maida Stanhope Siriah Maud Baker	Haleyon Maida Stanhope Sirch Maud Baker 💍 1897/2642	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	27 30	Silverstream Silverstream	7 weeks 6 months	Salvation Army Barracks	97/3980		26 October 1897	Major Joseph Birkenshaw
397	28 October 1897	Joseph Swindale Isabella Donaldson	Joseph Swindale Isabella Donaldson 💍 1897/2643	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	25 23	Wellington Wellington	11 years 10 years	House of Mr. Alabaster, Butler Street	97/3981		28 October 1897	Rev. Thomas Francis Jones
398	29 October 1897	James Patrick Olson Mary Jane Orland	James Patrick OConnell Mary Jane Orlandi 💍 1897/3066 James Patrick Kalaugher Mary Jane Hall 💍 1897/4943	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 21	Wellington Wellington	8 years 4 years	St. Joseph's Church	97/4561		29 October 1897	Rev. John Ainsworth
399	29 October 1897	Edward Methuen Henry Ada Tatton	Edward Melbourne Hawkins Ada Tatton 💍 1897/2607	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	39 33	Wellington Wellington	18 years 8 years	St. Mark's Church	97/3941		29 October 1897	Rev. Richard Coffey

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).