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 693

District of Wellington 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
450	21 December 1897	Clarence Hawker Kate Thomas	Clarence Hawker Kate Thomas 💍 1897/194	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 19	Wellington Reefton	10 months 8 months	Registrar's Office	97/3915	Mary Ann Thomas	23 December 1897	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
481	22 December 1897	William Farquhar Smith Margaret Frances Jameson	William Farquahar Smith Margaret Frances Jamison 💍 1897/3321	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 20	Pahiatua Wellington	3 years 3 weeks	St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington	97/4860	Henry Sprott	27 December 1897	Rev. James Paterson
482	22 December 1897	Andrew McKenzie Florence Ada Horger	Andrew McKenzie Florence Ada Worger 💍 1897/311	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	28 29	Wellington Wellington	4½ years 6 years	House of Mr. Kirkcaldie, College Street, Wellington	97/4951		27 December 1897	Rev. James Paterson
483	22 December 1897	William Edward Fraser Margaret Elsworth Notman		Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	21 19	Wellington Wellington	21 years 10 years	House of Mrs. Matthews, Sydney Street, Wellington	97/4854	Charles T.N. Matthews	22 December 1897	Rev. Charles Simmers Ogg
484	23 December 1897	Ernest Arthur Thompson Sarah Ann James	Ernest Arthur Houghton Sarah Annie James 💍 1897/195	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Manukau Otaki	6 years 8 years	Registrar's Office	97/3916		23 December 1897	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
485	23 December 1897	James Healey Margaret Sutherland	James Healey Margaret Sutherland 💍 1897/196 William Paterson Stuart Margaret Sutherland 💍 1898/2676	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	27 22	Wellington Wellington	2 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	97/3917		23 December 1897	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
486	23 December 1897	Douglas Robert Wilson Alberta Rachael Emma Thompson	Douglas Robert Wilsone Alberta Rachael Minnie Thompson 💍 1897/2627	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 28	Pahiatua Wellington	3 weeks 28 years	House of Mr. J.W. Thompson, 25 Thompson Road, Wellington	97/3969		23 December 1897	Rev. James Kennedy Elliott
487	24 December 1897	Benjamin Bawden Smith Annie Luman	Benjamin Barwise Smith Annie Luman 💍 1897/2654	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 18	Wellington Wellington	9 years 18 years	House of Mr. Luman, Victoria Street, Wellington	97/3970	Martin Luman	24 December 1897	Rev. William Thirer
488	29 December 1897	Archibald McLean Elizabeth Lyons	Archibald McLean Elizabeth Lyons 💍 1897/312	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	53 44	Manukau, Green Hill, Hawkes Bay Wellington	29 years 17 years	St John's Church, Wellington	97/4752		29 December 1897	Rev. James Paterson
489	29 December 1897	Gordon James Reid Louisa Marion Angela Bell	Gordon James Reid Louisa Marion Augusta Gill 💍 1897/2603	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	24 25	Dunedin Wellington	5 months 5 years	St Peter's Church, Dunedin	97/3937		29 December 1897	Rev. William Campbell Waters

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).