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 690

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
450	9 December 1897	Albert Percy Godber Georgina Elizabeth Kirkpatrick		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 25	Wellington Wellington	22 years 6 years	House of Mrs. C. Godber, Abel Smith Street, Wellington	97/3928		9 December 1897	Rev. Charles Dallaston
451	10 December 1897	Herbert Ernest White Edith Mary Darney	Herbert Ernest White Edith Mary Barney 💍 1897/188	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	31 27	Wellington Sydney	3 weeks 6 months	Registrar's Office	97/3940		10 December 1897	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
452	10 December 1897	Peter Broe Catherine Ada Lugar	Peter Broe Catherine Ada Lugar 💍 1897/2597	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	23 19	Wellington Wellington	23 years 4 years	St. Peter's Church	97/3932	Charles M. Lugar, father	10 December 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters
453	11 December 1897	John Roberts Emily Hunter	John Roberts Emily Hunter 💍 1897/2650	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	24 24	Wellington Wellington	23 years 6 years	House of Mrs. Hunter, No. 12 Moore Street, Wellington	97/3926		11 December 1897	Rev. James Kennedy Elliott
454	11 December 1897	Andrew Bowden Sarah Ellen Hoegland	Andrew Bowden Sarah Hellen Hedgland 💍 1897/2616	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 22	Wellington Wellington	6 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	97/3951		11 December 1897	Rev. William Baumber
455	13 December 1897	Benjamin Alfred Pretty Mary Josephine Pretty	Benjamin Alfred Scott Mary Josephine Pretty 💍 1897/3070	Bachelor Spinster	Tramdriver	21 20	Wellington Wellington	10 years 3 years	St. Mary's of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	97/4365	Malvina C. Pretty, guardian	13 December 1897	Rev. Thomas Devoy
456	13 December 1897	Michael Joseph Charlotte White		Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	24 21	Invercargill Christchurch	6 years 12 years	St. Mary's of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	97/4366		13 December 1897	Rev. Thomas Devoy
457	13 December 1897	Albert James Hookins Minnie Laura Staples	Albert James Hoskins Minnie Laura Staples 💍 1897/189	Widower Spinster	Horsetrainer	35 25	Wanganui Wanganui	15 months 6 months	Registrar's Office	97/3941		13 December 1897	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
458	13 December 1897	Te Hapi Love Ripeka Matene	Wi Hapi Love Ripeka Matene 💍 1897/2637	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 16	Waiwhetu Petone	20 years 16 years	Church of England, Lower Hutt	97/3973	Janiera Love, father; Paute Matene, father	13 December 1897	Rev. Frederick Augustus Bennett
459	13 December 1897	Frederick Thomas Smith Beatrice Georgiana Smith	Frederick Thomas Boyce Beatrice Georgina Snowsill 💍 1897/2612	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	27 23	Wellington London	1 month 4 years	Congregational Church, Ghuznee Street, Wellington	97/3924		13 December 1897	Rev. John Reed Glasson

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).