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 228

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1898

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
1	4 January 1898	Hugh Edward Peter Keltie Naomi Jane Williams	Hugh Edward Peter Keltie Naomi Jane Williams 💍 1898/484	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Watchmaker	25 27	Greytown Wellington	24 years 20 years	House of Mr. Williams, Owen Street, Wellington	98/529		11 January 1898	Rev Charles Dallaston
2	5 January 1898	Richard Joseph Thorpe Agatha Duncan	Richard Joseph Thorpe Agatha Duncan 💍 1898/444	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Bootmaker	25 25	Wellington Wellington	10 months 8 years	House of Mrs. Thorpe, Salisbury Avenue, Wellington	98/485		5 January 1898	Rev William Baumber
3	5 January 1898	William Attwell Alice James King	William Attwell Alice James King 💍 1898/526	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Contractor	38 25	Wellington Wellington	14 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/582		5 January 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
4	6 January 1898	Allan Hamilton Jessie Arthur	Allan Hamilton Jessie Arthur 💍 1898/488	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker Cabinetmaker	33 28	Wanganui Dunedin	4 years 22 years	House of Mr. Birtmshaw, Florence Street, Wellington	98/515		8 January 1898	Rev William Shirer
5	7 January 1898	Herbert William Short Annie Laura Isabel Dicker	Herbert William Shortt Annie Laura Isabel Dicker 💍 1898/479	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Clerk	24 23	Wellington Wellington	21 years 23 years	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	98/524		7 January 1898	Rev Allan Macdonald Johnson
6	7 January 1898	Edmund Robert Wood Anne Roberts	Edmond Robert Wood Annie Roberts 💍 1898/445	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Joiner	25 22	Wellington Wellington	5 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/486		7 January 1898	Rev William Baumber
7	8 January 1898	George Fair Brown Jennie Dumble	George Fair Browne Jennie Dumble 💍 1898/446	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Clerk	29 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/487		8 January 1898	Rev William Baumber
8	10 January 1898	George Arthur Herbert Charles Atkinson Louisa Jane Howard	George Arthur Herbert Charles Atkinson Louisa Jane Howard 💍 1898/447	Bachelor Spinster	Barber Barber	21 18	Wellington Wellington	18 months 18 years	House of Mr. Howard, 37 Tory Street, Wellington	98/488	Edward Howard, Father	10 January 1898	Rev William Baumber
9	10 January 1898	John W. Indoe Mabel Hill	John McIndoe Mabel Hill 💍 1898/470	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Printer	39 25	Dunedin Wellington	38 years 24 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	98/495		10 January 1898	Rev James Paterson
10	14 January 1898	William Alexander Gross Sarah Jane Cole	William Alexander Crossen Sarah Jane Cole 💍 1898/449	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith, Govt. Railways Blacksmith, Govt. Railways	24 21	Wellington Wellington	9 months 21 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/489		14 January 1898	Rev William Baumber

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).