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 483

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
686	16 December 1897	Thomas Henry Wilson Eliza Kilgour	Thomas Henry Wilson Eliza Kilgour 💍 1897/267	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern Maker	28 28	Auckland Newmarket	2 years 28	House of Father of Bride	97/4660		16 December 1897	Rev. S. B. Monro, Presbyterian
687	16 December 1897	Eric Sydney Pittos Leila Pachman		Bachelor Spinster	Mining Student	25 22	Auckland Ponsonby	25 22	House of Father of Bride	97/3766		16 December 1897	Rev. W. Pittos, Wesleyan
688	16 December 1897	Michael John Naughton Mary Ann Ryall	Michael John Naughton Mary Ann Ryan 💍 1898/64	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	Auckland Auckland	7 years 20	St. Patrick's Cathedral	98/72	John Ryall, Father	16 December 1897	Rev. H. Burke, Roman Catholic
689	17 December 1897	Ernest David Reid Young Rhoda Katherine Busler	Ernest David Reid Rhoda Catherine Young 💍 1897/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Brush Maker	26 26	Auckland Parnell	26 years 3	St. Mary's Church	97/4601		17 December 1897	Rev. J. Macmurray, Church of England
690	17 December 1897	Joseph Heidenfeld Annie Ludzki	Joseph Weidenfeld Annie Ludzki 💍 1897/3218	Bachelor Spinster	Metal Plate Worker	35 21	Auckland Auckland	4 years 1	House of Sister of Bride, Willow Street, Auckland	97/4721		17 December 1897	Rev. S. A. Goldstein, Hebrew
691	17 December 1897	Harry Percival Taylor Olive Alexandrina Russell	Harry Percival Taylor Olive Alexandrina Russell 💍 1897/2428	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouse Man	28 25	Auckland Ponsonby	28 years 25	Wesleyan Church	97/3725		17 December 1897	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
692	18 December 1897	John Bellis Olive MacOnachie		Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	31 20	Hamilton Auckland	4 years 20 years	Church of England	97/3730	Martha Colbourne, Mother	18 December 1897	Rev. J. Haselden, Church of England
693	18 December 1897	Robert Edward Jamieson Eliza The Ray	Robert Edward Jamieson Eliza McKay 💍 1897/283	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher	24 20	Cabbage Bay Cabbage Bay	4 months 4 months	Presbyterian Church	97/4653	John Evans, Guardian	18 December 1897	Rev. R. Macnicol, Presbyterian
694	18 December 1897	George Heriot Barker Mabel Mary Waters	George Heriot Barker Mabel Mary Waters 💍 1897/2454	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon	24 24	Wellington Auckland	18 months 4 years	House of Father of Bride	97/3751		18 December 1897	Rev. R. Ferguson, Presbyterian

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).