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 761

District of Christchurch 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
444	10 November 1897	Alexander Kerr Margaret Forson Smith	Alexander Kerr Margaret Forson Smith 💍 1897/211 Alexander Symon Margaret Smith 💍 1897/238 Alexander Bell Charlotte Ellen Smith 💍 1897/4549	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 12 years	Methodist Church, Woolston	97/4311	Margaret Smith, Mother	10 November 1897	Rev H. R. Bellhouse, Methodist
445	11 November 1897	William James Willis Annie Banks	William James Willis Annie Banks 💍 1897/3109	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 14 years	Methodist Church, Cambridge Terrace, Christchurch	97/4581		11 November 1897	Rev J. H. Lynn, Primitive Methodist
446	11 November 1897	Alexander McKenzie Mary English	Alexander McKenzie Mary English 💍 1897/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	37 31	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/4227		11 November 1897	Registrar J. W. Parkerson
447	11 November 1897	Frederick Charles Aldridge Bertha Maud Cairns	Frederick Charles Aldridge Bertha Maud Cairns 💍 1897/2848	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 5 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/4228		11 November 1897	Registrar of Marriages J. W. Parkerson
448	11 November 1897	Henry Thomas Whittington Louisa Beatrice Read	Henry Thomas Whittington Louisa Beatrice Read 💍 1897/2889	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 11 years	Church of Good Shepherd, Linwood	97/4295		11 November 1897	Rev A. J. C. Gilbert, Church of England
449	11 November 1897	Frederick Tulley Ellen Young	Frederick Tulley Ellen Jones 💍 1897/3159	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 27	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 6 months	St Mary's Church, Addington	97/4632		11 November 1897	Rev W. J. Bean, Church of England
450	13 November 1897	George Frederick Lavender Amy Demon	George Frederick Lavender Amy Denman 💍 1897/216	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 23 years	St Mark's Church, Opawa	97/4316		13 November 1897	Ven. Archdeacon Cholmondeley, Church of England
451	15 November 1897	George Borrell Louisa Green	George Borrell Louisa Green 💍 1897/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 26	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 16 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	97/4229		15 November 1897	Registrar of Marriages J. W. Parkerson

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).