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 477

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
629	19 November 1897	Joshua Charles Hill Ada Smith	Joshua Charles Hill Ada Smith 💍 1897/266	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 22	Auckland Auckland	2 years 22 years	House of Father of Bride, 22, Napier Street	97/4659	19 November 1897	Rev. F. B. Monro, Presbyterian
630	19 November 1897	Frank Foodacre Ebert May Elizabeth Ebert	Frank Goodacre May Elizabeth Ebert 💍 1897/3576	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	31 21	Auckland Auckland	31 years 16 years	House of Father of Bride, 16, Newton Road	97/4833	19 November 1897	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
631	19 November 1897	John Newel Colthurst Adelaide Love	John Henry Colthurst Adelaide Love 💍 1897/2414	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	22 26	Auckland Auckland	27 years 1 year	Registrar's office, Creek, Auckland	97/3685	19 November 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
632	19 November 1897	Borge Lionel Herbert Mary Gladding	George Lionel Herbert Mary Gladding 💍 1897/2533	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	33 26	Auckland Manurewa	12 months 25 years	St. David's Church, Woodside	97/3840	19 November 1897	Rev. W. Kirkbride, Church of England
633	22 November 1897	John Reilly Horne Margaret Helena Horne	John Reilly Margaret Helena Horne 💍 1897/3085	Widower Spinster	Purveyor	51 27	Coromandel Coromandel	9 years 25 years	St. Paul's Church	97/4556	22 November 1897	Rev. C. W. Nelson, Church of England
634	22 November 1897	Borge Judehope McDermott Mary Jane Luande		Bachelor Spinster	Sign Writer	23 21	Auckland Auckland	23 years 6 months	Registrar's office	97/3686	22 November 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
635	22 November 1897	Lawrence Brown Jongh Emma Fiblen	Lawrence Brown Tough Emma Sibley 💍 1897/2480	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	33 27	Waikarewa Te Aroha	2 years 12 months 2 years	House of A. Peters, Wellington Pt.	97/3777	22 November 1897	Rev. J. A. Dorrie, Presbyterian
636	22 November 1897	Ronald Walter Alexander Sarah Ann Walsh	Ronald Walter Alexander Sarah Ann Walsh 💍 1897/2432	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist	25 20	Onehunga Onehunga	1 year 28 years	St. John's Church, Onehunga	97/3729	22 November 1897	Rev. J. Haselden, Church of England
637	22 November 1897	William Baxter Simpson Louisa Mabel Luande Bull	William Baxter Simpson Louisa Mabel Maude Bull 💍 1897/2416	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 21	Auckland Auckland	22 years 19 years	Registrar's office	97/3687	22 November 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
638	22 November 1897	Joseph Cross Smith Ida Mary Smith	Joseph Cross Ida Mary Smith 💍 1897/3187	Widower Spinster	Baker	39 29	Auckland Auckland	15 months 20 years	House of Bridegroom, 20, Wakefield St.	97/4712	22 November 1897	Rev. C. E. Hard, Primitive Methodist

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).