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 022

District of Auckland 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
499	13 September 1897	Samuel James Sheldon Sophia McCullough	Samuel James Sheldon Sophia McCullough 💍 1897/2337	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 21	Auckland Auckland	16 years 2 years	St Davids Church Auckland	97/3605		13 September 1897	Rev R.S. West, Presbyterian
500	14 September 1897	Laurence Pitkethley Martha Horboys	Lawrence Pitkethley Martha Worboys 💍 1897/86	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 24	Auckland Auckland	29 years 23 years	Registrars Office Auckland	97/2589		14 September 1897	E.H. Lyons, Registrar
501	14 September 1897	James McLelland Maggie Merrie Smith	James McLelland Maggie Merrie Smith 💍 1897/1542	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 29	Coromandel Remuera	2 years 20 years	House of Rev G.B. Munro	97/2671		14 September 1897	Rev G.B. Munro, Presbyterian
502	14 September 1897	Frank Ernest Gravatt Jessie Witten Copland	Frank Ernest Gravatt Jessie Witten 💍 1897/2329	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 26	Coromandel Auckland	10 months 6 years	Wesleyan Church	97/3596		14 September 1897	Rev H.R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
503	14 September 1897	William George Ferguson Rebecca Ann Copland	William George Ferguson Rebecca Ann Copland 💍 1897/1538	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 17	Chelsea Chelsea	18 months 6 years	House of Father of Bride	97/2667	Father of Bride	14 September 1897	Rev A. Ferguson, Presbyterian
504	15 September 1897	Edwin James Sutcliffe Elizabeth Johannascott	Edwin James Sutcliffe Elizabeth Johanna Scott 💍 1897/1536	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 21	Auckland Auckland	15 years 20 years	St Marks Church	97/2665		15 September 1897	Rev W. Beathy, Church of England
505	16 September 1897	Joseph Michel Juliet Hoson	Joseph Michel Juliet Hoson 💍 1897/3638	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	35 16	Auckland Auckland	6 months 6 years	Registrars Office	97/2590		16 September 1897	E.H. Lyons, Registrar
506	17 September 1897	Henry Jocelyn Gill Margaret Moeton Barruth	Henry Joclyn Gill Margaret Morton Carruth 💍 1897/3739	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 24	Papatoetoe Papatoetoe	20 years 24 years	House of Father of Bride	97/2629	Father of Bride	17 September 1897	Rev H.J. Steele, 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).