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 849

District of Dunedin 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
398	23 December 1897	James Allan Hood Catherine Mary Hutton	James Allan Hood Catharine Mary Hutton 💍 1897/2979	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 years 27 years	Dunedin St Kilda	11 years 5 years	In the Presbyterian Church	97/4407	23 December 1897	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
399	24 December 1897	William Grainger Catherine Cross	William Grainger Catherine Cross 💍 1897/2997	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 years 24 years	Andersons Bay Portobello	3 days 24 years	In St Mary's Church	97/4433	24 December 1897	Revd J. Richards, Church of England Minister
400	24 December 1897	Alfred Archenhold Emily Moss	Alfred Archenhold Emily Moss 💍 1897/2971	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	22 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 6 months	In the house of Edward Miall Moss	97/4422	24 December 1897	Revd R. Saunders, Congregational Minister
401	24 December 1897	William Johnstone Elizabeth Miller Hallidays	William Johnstone Elizabeth Millier Halliday 💍 1897/3200 William Johnstone Margaret Ann Hamilton Neilson 💍 1897/4834	Widower Widow	Laborer	44 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Revd Thomas N. Newbold	97/4701	24 December 1897	Revd J. H. Newbold, Wesleyan Minister
402	27 December 1897	Thomas Holden Annie Hesander	Thomas Holden Annie Alexander 💍 1897/2956	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	25 years 22 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 22 years	In the house of Henry Hesander	97/4408	27 December 1897	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
403	27 December 1897	John Thomas Lowden Mary Stewart Duff	John Thomas Lowden Mary Stewart Duff 💍 1898/851	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	24 years 25 years	Mornington Dunedin	8 years 4 years	In the house of John Duff, Bowling Street	98/1009	27 December 1897	Revd J. M. Fraser, Presbyterian Minister
404	27 December 1897	John Will Duff Agnes Thomson	John Will Duff Agnes Thomson 💍 1898/852	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Conductor	27 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 1 month	In the house of John Duff, Bowling Street	98/1010	27 December 1897	Revd J. M. Fraser, Presbyterian Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).