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 487

District of Auckland 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
723	29 December 1897	James Fraser Bertha Alice Leathart	James Fraser Cunningham Bertha Alice Leathart 💍 1897/2461	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 25	Auckland Onehunga	20 years 25 years	Home of Father of Bride	97/3735		29 December 1897	Rev. B. Rhodes, Congregational
724	29 December 1897	Albert Hugh Burdis Rebecca Fletcher	Albert Hugh Curtis Rebecca Fletcher 💍 1897/3341	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 23	Kaiwaka Onehunga	20 months 23 years	Church of England	97/4887		29 December 1897	Rev. J. Hinden, Church of England
725	29 December 1897	Martin Turner Clara Smith	Martin Turner Clara Smith 💍 1898/74	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier	37 26	Auckland Auckland	15 years 3 years	Home of Rev. H. J. Williams, Karangahape Road	98/59		29 December 1897	Rev. H. J. Williams, Wesleyan
726	29 December 1897	Barrington Ralph Reading Ida Luana Caro	Barrington Ralph Keesing Ida Maria Caro 💍 1898/57	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 21	Auckland Auckland	25 years 9 months	Synagogue, Auckland	98/66		29 December 1897	Rev. S. A. Goldstein, Hebrew
727	29 December 1897	Robert Barton Parker Theresa Brown	Robert Carlton Barker Theresa Brown 💍 1897/2411	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	31 31	Auckland Auckland	31 years 31 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3705		29 December 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
728	29 December 1897	Ernest Edward Hicklen Selina Maria Wilson	Ernest Edward Nicklen Selina Maria Wilson 💍 1897/2412	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 27	Auckland Auckland	10 months 27 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/3706		29 December 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
729	29 December 1897	Adam Morrow Panette Pickard	Adam Morrow Jeanette Picard 💍 1898/58	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	22 22	Auckland Auckland	22 years 19 months	Home of Eda Israel	98/67		29 December 1897	Rev. J. Jones, Baptist
730	29 December 1897	John Morarty Anne Walker	John Moriarty Annie Walker 💍 1897/3593	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Auckland Auckland	23 months 20 years	St. Benedict's Church, Auckland	97/4011	Mary Agnes Walker, Mother	29 December 1897	Rev. W. Brodie, Roman Catholic
731	29 December 1897	Walter Saunders Emma Jane Burnmand	Walter Saunders Emma Jane Burnnard 💍 1897/3368	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	23 21	Waiheke Auckland	3 months 7 months	Epiphany Church, Newton	97/4931		29 December 1897	Rev. L. Fitzgerald, Church of England

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).