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 475

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
611	15 November 1897	Charles Gustavus Oden Annie Hauhaur	Charles Gustavus Oden Minnie Hanham 💍 1897/2467	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	41 22	Auckland Auckland	4 years 4 years	Church of Christ, Newton	97/3757	Father of Bride	15 November 1897	Rev. J. J. Bull, Church of Christ
612	15 November 1897	William Dawson Davidson Jane Lucas	William Dawson Davidson Jane Lucas 💍 1897/2422	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	26 26	Auckland Auckland	10 months 26 months	Baptist Church, Mount Eden	97/3719		15 November 1897	Rev. J. Jones, Baptist
613	15 November 1897	William Heum Schrafft Lavinia Mercy Keep	William Henry Schrafft Lavinia Mercy Keep 💍 1897/2745	Bachelor Spinster	Potter	23 26	Auckland Auckland	23 months 23 months	Home of W. H. Young, Ponsonby Road	97/4091		15 November 1897	Rev. A. Maclean, Presbyterian
614	15 November 1897	Walter Joseph Macklow Bertha Mabel Keane	Walter Joseph Macklow Hertha Mabel Keane 💍 1897/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber, Merchant	42 20	Auckland Auckland	34 months 20 months	St. Mary's Church, Parnell	97/4590	Elizabeth Keane, Mother of Bride	15 November 1897	Rev. J. Murray, Church of England
615	15 November 1897	John Reardon Emma Jane Pratt	Malcombe John Beaton Emma Jane Pratt 💍 1897/3073	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	34 30	Auckland Auckland	30 months 30 months	St. Matthews Church, Auckland	97/4550		15 November 1897	Rev. L. Fitzgerald, Church of England
616	15 November 1897	Alfred Pope Letitia Walker	Alfred George Stainton Lartitia Walker 💍 1897/2471	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	29 30	Paeroa Auckland	6 months 15 months	Home of Father of Bride, Upper Pitt Street	97/3769		15 November 1897	Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan
617	15 November 1897	Thomas Charles Clarke Mary Anne McManus	Thomas Charles Clarke Mary Anne McManus 💍 1897/2807	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 21	Auckland Auckland	25 months 18 months	St. Benedict's Church, Auckland	97/4209		15 November 1897	Very Rev. D. O'Gara, Roman Catholic
618	15 November 1897	John Pender Bathgate Alice Mary Cooke	John Pender Bathgate Alice Mary Cooke 💍 1897/2455	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	27 29	Auckland Auckland	10 months 28 months	Home of W. H. Smith, Old Clifton Road	97/3752		15 November 1897	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
619	15 November 1897	Robert Dunn Olead Janet Wilson	Robert Dunn Head Janet Wilson 💍 1897/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Trader	26 25	Auckland Auckland	28 months 1 month	Congregational Church, Newton	97/4597		15 November 1897	Rev. J. Warner, Congregational

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).