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 305

District of Christchurch 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
32	24 January 1898	Frederick Ellis Asquith Lilian Eliza Gill	Frederick Ellis Asquith Lillian Eliza Gill 💍 1898/2384	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	26 Years 18 Years	Wesleyan Church, Durham Street	98/834		24 January 1898	Rev. S. Macnicoll, Wesleyan
33	25 January 1898	Adam John Rivers Sarah Ellen Wilding	Adam John Niven Sarah Ellen Wilding 💍 1898/671	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Machinist	28 22	St. Albans Sydenham	2 Years 3 Weeks	In the house of Rev. I. Orchard, Christchurch	98/762		25 January 1898	Rev. I. Orchard, Wesleyan
34	27 January 1898	James Murphy Anne Shelley	James Murphy Anne Shelley 💍 1898/1721	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	52 41	Opawa Opawa	12 Years 3 Months	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	98/1963		27 January 1898	Rev. R. S. Cummings, Roman Catholic
35	28 January 1898	Stratford Love Collett Marion Gore	Stratford John Collett Marion Gore 💍 1898/2373	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	21 25	Christchurch Ship "Tongariro"	4 Days	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	98/824		28 January 1898	Rev. A. W. Averill, Church of England
36	28 January 1898	Edward William Leven Ada Williams	Edward William Genet Ada Williams 💍 1898/638	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	24 18	Linwood Sumner	1 Year 10 Years	Registrar's Office	98/709	Lillias Bonar Williams, Mother	28 January 1898	Registrar Marriages, J. M. Macferson
37	29 January 1898	Michael Joseph Fitzharris Susan Agetha Carrigg	Michael Joseph Fitzharris Susan Agatha Carrigg 💍 1898/2365	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 19	Christchurch Christchurch	6 Weeks 8 Weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	98/792	Martin Carrigg, Father	29 January 1898	Rev. R. S. Cummings
38	31 January 1898	George Gerard Bergh Fredericka Marie Bergh	George Gerard Frederikka Marie Bergh 💍 1898/2380	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 Days 22 Years	St. John's Church, Christchurch	98/813		31 January 1898	Rev. H. C. Watson, Church of England
39	31 January 1898	Gibbs George Francis Minnie Brunodon		Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Domestic	29 21	Christchurch Christchurch	29 Years 21 Years	Registrar's Office	98/730		31 January 1898	Registrar Marriages, J. M. Macferson

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).