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 263

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 March 1888

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
748	3 January 1888	Alfred John Cross Elizabeth Taylor	Alfred John Cross Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1898/2681 William James Jenkin Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1899/945	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	31 23	Wellington Wellington	13 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church, Westport	98/648		3 January 1888	J. Potts
749	13 January 1888	Denis MacDonnell Margareta Sargonia		Widower Widow	Bellman Laundress	84 47	Westport Westport	32 years 32 years	Residence of Thos. Malehe, Westport	98/653		13 January 1888	Thos. Malehe
750	15 January 1888	John MacElace Margareta Robert Austin	John McElwee Margaretta Richards Austin 💍 1898/590	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	27 24	Westport Reefton	27 years 30 years	Reefton	98/653		15 January 1888	J. P. Penfold
751	25 January 1888	James Joseph Young Agnes Hamilton	Sterne Joseph Young Agnes Hamilton 💍 1898/588	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	20 22	Westport Westport	20 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church, Westport	98/654	James Young, Father	25 January 1888	Thos. Malehe
752	15 February 1888	Thomas Fisher Maria Frank	Thomas Fisher Maria Frank 💍 1898/589	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	22 22	Denniston Denniston	4 years 4 years	Church, Westport	98/655		15 February 1888	Thos. Malehe
753	21 February 1888	George Edward John Taylor Charlotte Fuller	George Edward John Taylor Charlotte Fullen 💍 1898/604	Bachelor Spinster	Porter Domestic	21 22	Westport Westport	21 years 8 years	Residence of Samuel Fuller	98/649		21 February 1888	J. Potts
754	11 March 1888	William John Booker Lucy Margaret Kelly	William John Bowden Lucy Margaret Kelly 💍 1898/2682	Bachelor Spinster	Sticker Domestic	23 33	Westport Westport	23 years 12 years	Wesleyan Church, Westport	98/650		11 March 1888	J. Potts
755	18 March 1888	Augustus Frederick William Dalkie Esther Beatrice Laura Burrows	Augustus Fredrick William Dalkie Esther Beatrice Laura Burrows 💍 1898/586	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	25 23	Westport Westport	10 years 7 months	Presbyterian Church, Westport	98/652		18 March 1888	J. Hall
756	31 March 1888	Henry Henderson Mary Ann Jane Freek	Henry Henderson Mary Ann Jane Cheek 💍 1898/585	Bachelor Divorced	Miner Domestic	33 32	Denniston Westport	3 years 4 days	City Hotel, Westport	98/651		31 March 1888	A. P. Coard

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).