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 687

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
430	29 November 1897	Charles Thomas Brockhoff Lucy Annie Tenlington	Charles Thomas Brockhoff Lucy Annie Penlington 💍 1897/2596	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturer	23 21	Sydney Wellington	2 years 20 years	St. Peters Church, Wellington	97/3021		29 November 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters
431	29 November 1897	Andrew Lamb Marion Keith Flint	Andrew Lamb Marion Keith Flint 💍 1897/2652	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	22 18	Wellington Wellington	4 years 18 years	House of Mr. Robert Flint, Constable Street, Wellington	97/3968	Robert Flint, father of bride	1 December 1897	Rev. William Prior
432	1 December 1897	William Charles Chatfield Mary Rothouse Tucky	William Charles Chatfield Mary Hobhouse Tuckey 💍 1897/3319	Widower Spinster	Architect	45 32	Wellington Wellington	30 years 10 years	St. Paul's pro Cathedral, Wellington	97/4858		1 December 1897	Right Rev. Frederic Wallis, Bishop
433	1 December 1897	Ernest Frederick Clapham Sarah Smith	Ernest Frederick Upham Sarah Smith 💍 1897/3320	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	25 24	Wellington Paikakariki	15 years 12 years	St. Paul's pro Cathedral, Wellington	97/4859		1 December 1897	Rev. Thomas Henry Sprott
434	1 December 1897	Samuel Waters Margaret Ann Doig	Samuel Waters Margaret Ann Robertson 💍 1897/2623	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	29 26	Wellington Wellington	29 years 4 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	97/3958		1 December 1897	Rev. James Kennedy Elliots
435	2 December 1897	Allan Lee Jessie Burns	Allan Lee Jessie Burns 💍 1897/310	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	23 22	Wellington Wellington	12 years 3 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	97/4750		2 December 1897	Rev. James Paterson
436	2 December 1897	Harry Percy Smallbone Matilda Gertrude Doig	Harry Percy Smallbone Matilda Gertrude Porter 💍 1897/2595	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	32 24	Wellington Wellington	9 years 24 years	St. Peters Church, Wellington	97/3030		2 December 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters
437	2 December 1897	Ernest James Sales Rosina Overend	Ernest James Sales Rosina Overend 💍 1897/2646	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 21	Kaiwarra, Wellington Kaiwarra	3 years 21 years	House of Mr. W. James Overend, Kaiwarra	97/3984	W. James Overend, father of bride	2 December 1897	Rev. Thomas Francis Jones
438	3 December 1897	Charles Athya Elizabeth Harriett Thomas	Charles Athya Elizabeth Harriet Roberts 💍 1897/2594	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	27 29	Wellington Liverpool	2 years 2 years	St. Peters Church, Wellington	97/3929		3 December 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters
439	4 December 1897	Charles Edward Stone Ella Mildred Perham	Charles Edward Stone Ellen Mildred Perham 💍 1897/3327	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	30 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 24 years	St. Mark's Church, Wellington	97/4893		4 December 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).