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 287

District of Hokitika 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	5 January 1898	Henry Heber Amelia Isabel Isaacs Pollock	Henry Weber Amelia Isabela Isaacs Pollock 💍 1898/610	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic	33 24	Hokitika Hokitika	4 days 4 years	Residence of W. M. Pollock, Bealey Street, Hokitika	98/701		5 January 1898	Rev. A. Finger, Hebrew
2	10 January 1898	Patrick Douglas Annie Hartkey	Patrick Douglas Annie Hartkey 💍 1898/628	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	25 24	Woodstock Woodstock	25 years 4 years	English Church, Rimu	98/695	Mother	11 January 1898	Rev. W. Char. Wood
3	14 January 1898	Joseph Arthur Gavill Ellen Eale	Joseph Arthur Havill Ellen Gale 💍 1898/627	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	24 19	Callaghans Arahura	24 years 10 years	All Saints Anglican Church, Hokitika	98/694	James Eale, Father	14 January 1898	Rev. Staples Hamilton
4	19 January 1898	Arthur George Debenham Elizabeth Low	Arthur George Debenham Elizabeth Low 💍 1898/611	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	31 24	Stafford Town Stafford Town	3 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Thos. Low, Stafford	98/702		19 January 1898	Rev. E. Whitehouse
5	24 January 1898	William McKay Ada Matilda Perry	William McKay Ada Matilda Perry 💍 1898/606	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Domestic	24 25	Hokitika Hokitika	24 years 25 years	Residence of William Perry, Hall Street, Hokitika	98/697		24 January 1898	Rev. A. E. Finger
6	25 January 1898	Chas. Peter Glass Elizabeth Cook	Charles Peter Glass Elizabeth Cook 💍 1898/609	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	23 25	Kokatahi Hokitika	16 years 10 months	Residence of Miss Elizth. Cook, Revell Street, Hokitika	98/700		25 January 1898	Rev. Wm. Douglas
7	4 February 1898	Edward Augustus Bayfield Susan McGovern	Edward Augustus Haylock Susan McGoveran 💍 1898/607	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic	22 21	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 21 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	98/698		4 February 1898	Rev. A. Lepetit
8	14 February 1898	James Patrick Griffin Harriette Croft	James Patrick Griffin Harriette Croft 💍 1898/612	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	29 23	Stafford Arahura	24 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church, Stafford	98/703		14 February 1898	Rev. D. F. O'Callaghan
9	16 February 1898	Samuel Osborne Augusta Haigs	Samuel Osborne Augusta Haizo 💍 1898/608	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	32 20	Hokitika Hokitika	18 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	98/699	Joseph Haigs, Father	16 February 1898	Rev. A. Lepetit

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).