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 857

District of East Taieri 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
11	27 October 1897	William Collie Ethel Collie	William Collie Ethel Collie 💍 1897/3229	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Riverside Mosgiel	1 year 3 days	House of Thomas Collie, Mosgiel	97/4782		27 October 1897	Rev. J. M. McKerrow, Presbyterian
12	11 November 1897	John Hislop Isabella Wright	John Hislop Isabella Wright 💍 1897/3314	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	27 27	North Taieri North Taieri	6 months 27 years	House of James Smellie, North Taieri	97/4876		11 November 1897	Rev. Thomas Paulin, Presbyterian
13	15 December 1897	Daniel Peter Keenan Catherine Turnbull	John Daniel Peter Keenan Catherine Turnbull 💍 1897/362	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 23	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 23 years	House of Sydney Turnbull, Mosgiel	97/4463		15 December 1897	Rev. William Will, Presbyterian
14	17 December 1897	James Miller Mary Jane Blair	James Miller Mary Jane Blair 💍 1897/3230	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 19	Saddle Hill Saddle Hill	31 years 6 years	House of Robert Westwood, Saddle Hill	97/4783	David Miller, Guardian	14 December 1897	Rev. M. Watt D.D., Presbyterian
15	17 December 1897	James Cunningham Mary Westwood	James Cunningham Mary Westwood 💍 1897/3231	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	24 23	Dunedin Saddle Hill	14 months 23 years	House of Robert Westwood, Saddle Hill	97/4784		14 December 1897	Rev. M. Watt D.D., Presbyterian
16	27 December 1897	George Edmund Wood Henrietta Allan	George Edmund Woodhead Henrietta Allan 💍 1898/2697	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	33 30	Hope Hill Hope Hill	3 days 30 years	House of Joseph Allan, Hope Hill	98/1053		27 December 1897	Rev. William Will, Presbyterian
17	27 December 1897	Henry Martin Sarah Stewart	Henry Martin Sarah Stewart 💍 1897/3323	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	North Taieri Mosgiel Bush	8 months 20 years	House of Andrew Stewart, Mosgiel Bush	97/4878		27 December 1897	Rev. Thomas Paulin, Presbyterian

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).