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 232

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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
359	10 September 1897	Thomas Amison Lucy Martin	Thomas Avison Lucy Martin 💍 1897/3211	Bachelor Spinster	Millhand	26 30	Petone Petone	7 years 10 years	St. Augustine's Church, Petone	97/4736	10 September 1897	Rev. Joshua Jones
360	10 September 1897	John Hampton Page Julia Smith	John Humphries Page Julia Smith 💍 1897/1857	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	26 26	Masterton Masterton	1 year 1 year	Registry Office, Wellington	97/3046	10 September 1897	D. W. Mansfield, Registrar
361	10 September 1897	Walter Holland Charlotte Annie Amodie	Walter Wolland Charlotte Ann Anstis 💍 1897/2638	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 23	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	2 years 19 years	St. James Church, Lower Hutt	97/3074	10 September 1897	Rev. Joshua Jones
362	10 September 1897	Alexander Lachinge Lea Thomas Hamrick		Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 25	Auckland Wellington	2 years 20 years	St. James Church, Wellington	97/3071	10 September 1897	Rev. William Shirer
363	10 September 1897	James Howard Dickson Ellen Minnie Amodie		Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 22	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	7 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Upper Hutt	97/3076	10 September 1897	Rev. Andrew Gray
364	10 September 1897	Frank Stotery Jeannie Allan	Frank Mabey Jeannie Allan 💍 1897/1882	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Upper Hutt Lower Hutt	20 years 9 years	Presbyterian Church, Lower Hutt	97/3077	10 September 1897	Rev. Andrew Gray
365	10 September 1897	Richard Elliot Campbell Emily Louisa Leiner	Richard Dilnot Gambill Emily Louisa Lorimer 💍 1897/1898	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	24 25	Wellington Wellington	19 years 5 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	97/3093	10 September 1897	Rev. J. Kennedy Elliott
366	10 September 1897	Ernest Frederic Charles Ellen Thore	Ernest Frederick Charter Ellen Shore 💍 1897/1858	Bachelor Divorced	Butcher	27 30	Petone Petone	2 years 2 years	Registry Office, Wellington	97/3047	10 September 1897	D. W. Mansfield, Registrar
367	10 September 1897	Henry Webster Edith Geiger	Henry Webster Edith Gigger 💍 1897/1859	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer	29 22	Petone Petone	1 year 1 year	Registry Office, Wellington	97/3048	10 September 1897	D. W. Mansfield, Registrar
368	10 September 1897	James John Lawson Lizzie Allan	James Arthur Dawson Lizzie Allan 💍 1897/1899	Bachelor Spinster	Bookseller	30 29	Shannonville Wellington	11 years 1 year	Residence of Mr. J. Kennedy, Wellington	97/3094	10 September 1897	Rev. J. Kennedy Elliott

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).