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 726

District of Motueka 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
552	25 October 1897	Richard Frederick George Stade Elizabeth Jane Old Drummond	Richard Frederick George Slade Elizabeth Jane Old Drummond 💍 1897/3713	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	27 30	Lower Moutere Lower Moutere	27 years 30 years	House of Mr. James Drummond, Lower Moutere	97/4174		25 October 1897	Revd. Robert McClean, Presbyterian Minister
553	3 November 1897	Charles Patterson Fry Ruth Elsie McLean	Charles Paterson Fry Ruth Elsie McLean 💍 1897/3714	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	23 22	Riwaka Riwaka	23 years 22 years	House of Mr. Archibald McLean, Riwaka	97/4175		3 November 1897	Revd. Robert McClean, Presbyterian Minister
554	13 November 1897	Charles Allport Marion May Drummond	Charles Allport Marion May Drummond 💍 1897/3179	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	31 22	Lower Moutere Lower Moutere	3 days 22 years	House of Mr. James Drummond, Lower Moutere	97/4704		13 November 1897	Revd. James Valentiine Johnstone, Presbyterian Minister
555	15 November 1897	Joseph William Duncan Rosina Ellen Talbot	Joseph William Duncan Rosina Ellen Talbot 💍 1897/3694	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Riwaka Motueka	26 years 25 years	St. Thomas' Church, Motueka	97/4179		15 November 1897	Revd. Thomas Johnstone, Church of England Minister
556	13 December 1897	James Goodman Julia Woodgate	James Goodman Julia Woodgate 💍 1897/3695	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	34 24	Motueka Motueka	30 years 14 years	St. Thomas' Church, Motueka	97/4180		13 December 1897	Revd. Thomas Johnstone, Church of England Minister
557	22 December 1897	John William Frederick Sixtus Elizabeth May Briining	John Frederick William Sigtus Elizabeth May Brinning 💍 1897/3715	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 25	Neudorf Motueka	30 years 25 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	97/4176		22 December 1897	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
558	22 December 1897	Charles James Starnes Sarah Jane Hyland	Charles James Starnes Sarah Jane Hyland 💍 1897/3716	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 20	Motueka Motueka	20 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	97/4177	Stephen Starnes, Grandfather; Mark Hyland, father	22 December 1897	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar
559	28 December 1897	Arthur Harry Holmwood Florence Ester Hudson	Arthur Harry Holmwood Florence Esther Hudson 💍 1897/3717	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	25 21	Ngatimoti Ngatimoti	12 years 11 years	Registrar's Office, Motueka	97/4178		28 December 1897	Joseph Foord Wilson, Registrar

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).