Intentions to Marry, 1898 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840413, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 27 2025

1898 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 199

District of Masterton Quarter ending 31 March 1898 Registrar Samuel Plimmer

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

14 January 1898

Thomas Udy Wellington
Ellen Beadington Wrigley

Thomas Udy Wellington
Ellen Bennington Wrigley
💍 1898/370

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer
Domestic duties

24
26

Masterton
Masterton

14 years
26 years

Residence of James Wrigley, Victoria Street, Masterton

98/405

14 January 1898

Rev. J. S. Smalley, Wesleyan

No	1
Date of Notice	14 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Udy Wellington	Ellen Beadington Wrigley
BDM Match (96%)	Thomas Udy Wellington	Ellen Bennington Wrigley
	💍 1898/370
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer	Domestic duties
Age	24	26
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	14 years	26 years
Marriage Place	Residence of James Wrigley, Victoria Street, Masterton
Folio	98/405
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. S. Smalley, Wesleyan

17 January 1898

Henry Nee
Margaret Frances Diamond

Henry Nee
Margaret Frances Diamond
💍 1898/369

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith
Servant

32
29

Masterton
Masterton

17 years
11 years

Residence of Bridegroom, Rose Street, Masterton

98/404

17 January 1898

Rev. F. McKenna, Roman Catholic

No	2
Date of Notice	17 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Nee	Margaret Frances Diamond
	💍 1898/369
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith	Servant
Age	32	29
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	17 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Bridegroom, Rose Street, Masterton
Folio	98/404
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. F. McKenna, Roman Catholic

19 January 1898

Aaron Cook
Alice Jane Scadden

Aaron Cook
Alice Jane Scadden
💍 1898/372

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic duties

27
19

Masterton
Masterton

6 years
12 years

The Registrar's Office, Masterton

98/407

J. Scadden, father

19 January 1898

The Registrar, Masterton

No	3
Date of Notice	19 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Aaron Cook	Alice Jane Scadden
	💍 1898/372
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic duties
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	6 years	12 years
Marriage Place	The Registrar's Office, Masterton
Folio	98/407
Consent	J. Scadden, father
Date of Certificate	19 January 1898
Officiating Minister	The Registrar, Masterton

14 February 1898

Gustav Kiellberg
Annie Elizabeth Stovell

Gustav Kiellberg
Annie Elizabeth Sewell
💍 1898/373

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

31
20

Taueru
Masterton

6 years
15 years

The Church of England, Masterton

98/408

Thomas Stovell, father

14 February 1898

Rev. P. C. W. Earee, Church of England

No	4
Date of Notice	14 February 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gustav Kiellberg	Annie Elizabeth Stovell
BDM Match (94%)	Gustav Kiellberg	Annie Elizabeth Sewell
	💍 1898/373
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	31	20
Dwelling Place	Taueru	Masterton
Length of Residence	6 years	15 years
Marriage Place	The Church of England, Masterton
Folio	98/408
Consent	Thomas Stovell, father
Date of Certificate	14 February 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. C. W. Earee, Church of England

28 February 1898

John McPherson Cole
Annie Catherine Payne

John McPherson Cole
Ann Catherine Payne
💍 1898/371

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Domestic duties

24
23

Masterton
Masterton

4 years
20 years

Residence of Henry Payne, Albert Street, Masterton

98/406

28 February 1898

Rev. J. S. Smalley, Wesleyan

No	5
Date of Notice	28 February 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John McPherson Cole	Annie Catherine Payne
BDM Match (95%)	John McPherson Cole	Ann Catherine Payne
	💍 1898/371
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Domestic duties
Age	24	23
Dwelling Place	Masterton	Masterton
Length of Residence	4 years	20 years
Marriage Place	Residence of Henry Payne, Albert Street, Masterton
Folio	98/406
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. S. Smalley, Wesleyan

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).