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 016

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
466	14 August 1897	Henry Read Watts Matilda Miller	Henry Read Watts Matilda Miller 💍 1897/1558	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 36	Auckland Auckland	25 years 1 year	St John's College, Tamaki	97/2663		24 August 1897	Rev. R. Smallfield, Church of England
467	24 August 1897	Charles John Christopher Jabrum Rhoda Ethel Teague	Charles John Christopher Tabrum Rhoda Ethel Teague 💍 1897/100	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	29 21	Auckland Auckland	8 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/2599		24 August 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
468	24 August 1897	Samuel James Parsons O'Leary Elizabeth Annie Webb	Samuel James Parsons O'Leary Elizabeth Annie Webb 💍 1897/3734	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman	26 23	Auckland Auckland	26 years 23 years	House of Father of Bride, George Street	97/2645		24 August 1897	Rev. A. Peters, Wesleyan
469	14 August 1897	James Hector McAulay Mary Sheddan	James Hector McAulay Mary Sheddan 💍 1897/2336	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	35 35	Waipu Auckland	35 years 35 years	House of Father of Bride, Franklin Road	97/3602		24 August 1897	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
470	25 August 1897	Alfred Thomas Holt Mary Ryan	Alfred Thomas Holt Mary Ryan 💍 1897/77	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 18	Waihi Gisborne	2 1/2 years 18 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	97/2580	J. Ryan, Father of Bride	25 August 1897	E. H. Lyons, Registrar
471	26 August 1897	Francis Powell Annie Agnes Davis	Francis Powell Annie Agnes Davies 💍 1897/1574	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 21	Auckland Auckland	10 years 21 years	St Sepulchre's Church, Auckland	97/2682		26 August 1897	Arch. B. J. Dudley, Church of England
472	30 August 1897	Donald McLean Elizabeth Robertson	Donald McLean Elizabeth Robertson 💍 1897/2374 Frank Anderson Elizabeth Robertson 💍 1897/632	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	39 33	Auckland Auckland	16 years 2 weeks	House of Mr. Christie, Rose Road	97/3644		30 August 1897	Rev. J. R. Richards, Wesleyan
473	30 August 1897	Thomas Rowe Sarah Giltrow	Thomas Rowe Sarah Giltrow 💍 1897/3743	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 22	Auckland Auckland	24 years 9 years	Wesleyan Church, Pitt Street	97/2649		30 August 1897	Rev. J. Williams, Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).