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 663

District of Palmerston North 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
77	6 December 1897	Joseph George Stevenson Gertrude Drills	Joseph George Stevenson Gertrude Miller 💍 1897/4974	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	22 21	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 years 10 months	At the house of Catherine Drills, Palmerston North	97/4059		6 November 1897	Revd J. A. Luxford, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
78	10 December 1897	David Crozier Helena Maud Davison	David Crozier Helena Maud Davison 💍 1897/2711	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 21	Linton Linton	7 years 7 years	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	97/4054		10 November 1897	Robi. R. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
79	10 December 1897	James Alfred Hazelwood Margaret Ada Bennett	James Alfred Hazelwood Margaret Ada Bennett 💍 1897/2716	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	21 19	Aorangi Aorangi	4 days 19 years	At the house of James Bennett, Aorangi	97/4058	James Bennett, father	10 November 1897	Revd James Cocker, Primitive Methodist, Feilding
80	29 December 1897	Joseph Henry Deoline Pauline Rosannoski	Joseph Henry Devlin Pauline Rosanowski 💍 1897/288	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	24 24	Palmerston North Palmerston North	6 weeks 20 years	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	97/4744		29 November 1897	Revd J. F. Patterson, C. P., Palmerston North
81	3 December 1897	Henry Sharman Agnes May Hutcheson	Henry Sharman Agnes May Hutcheson 💍 1897/2764	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 25	Palmerston North Palmerston North	23 years 10 months	At the house of Alfred Paltridge, Pitt Street	97/4116		3 December 1897	Revd Wm. Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
82	11 December 1897	Robert George Crichton Gertrude May Boon	Robert George Crichton Gertrude May Boon 💍 1897/2765	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	27 21	Palmerston North Palmerston North	9 years 8 years	At the house of John Boon, Palmerston North	97/4117		11 December 1897	Revd Wm. Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
83	17 December 1897	William Charles Macey Sarah Eleanor Waters	William Charles Macey Sarah Eleanor Waters 💍 1897/4992	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	37 30	Fitzherbert Palmerston North	9 weeks 6 weeks	At the house of Sarah Cooper, Palmerston North	97/4061		17 December 1897	Revd J. A. Luxford, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North

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).