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 703

District of Wairau 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
45	19 November 1897	Edward Jacob Elizabeth Lucas	Edward Jacob Elizabeth Lucas 💍 1897/292	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	52 19	Spring Creek Spring Creek	12 years 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Maori Pa; Spring Creek	97/4756	Mary Ann Lucas, mother	19 November 1897	The Rev. Heteraka Warihi
46	2 December 1897	William Stafford Strachan Mangakura Pope formerly Whawhere		Widower Widow	Farmer	31 22	Ina Marina, Maori Pa Ina Marina, Maori Pa	Since birth 3 weeks	Office of the Registrar of three Marriages, Wairau, at Blenheim	97/4132		2 December 1897	The Registrar, Alfred Carter
47	8 December 1897	George Hodson Harriet Louisa Brooks	George Hodson Harriet Louisa Brooks 💍 1897/2787	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	25 19	Blenheim Renwick	21 years 6 months	House of John Hodson, Blenheim	97/4139	William Brooks, Father	8 December 1897	The Venerable Thomas Samuel Grace, W. C. Robb
48	11 December 1897	William Robert Scott Laura Farmer	William Robert Scott Laura Farmer 💍 1897/2759	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	33 30	Blenheim Blenheim	4 days Since birth	House of Frederick Thomas Farmer, Blenheim	97/4133		11 December 1897	The Venerable Thomas Samuel Grace
49	14 December 1897	William Hower Jane Mary Mills	William Flower Jane Mary Mills 💍 1897/2760	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep farmer Domestic Servant	34 21	Renwicktown Renwicktown	4 days Since birth	Church of the Annunciation, Renwicktown	97/4134		14 December 1897	The Venerable Thomas Samuel Grace
50	16 December 1897	Christopher Reidy Hannah Laylor	Christopher Reidy Hannah Taylor 💍 1897/2761	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey Dressmaker	22 25	Blenheim Blenheim	12 years Since birth	Residence of John Laylor, Maxwell Road, Blenheim	97/4135		16 December 1897	The Venerable Thomas Samuel Grace
51	21 December 1897	Joseph Taylor Jessie Maud Melville	Joseph Taylor Jessie Maud Melville 💍 1897/2769	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 20	Blenheim Blenheim	Since birth 10 years	Church of the Nativity, Blenheim	97/4136	William Bevil Melville	21 December 1897	The Venerable Thomas Samuel Grace
52	23 December 1897	Alfred Henry Scott Catherine Rush	Alfred Henry Scott Catherine Rush 💍 1897/293	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	24 22	Blenheim Grovetown	14 days 1 year	Wesleyan Church, Grovetown	97/4757		23 December 1897	The Rev. William Keall

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).