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 403

District of East Taieri 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	7 January 1898	Henry Demouth Margaret Johnston Currie	Henry Demouth Margaret Johnston Currie 💍 1898/887	Widower Spinster	Labourer	38 36	North Taieri North Taieri	2 years 36 years	House of Williamson Currie of North Taieri	98/1047		7 January 1898	Rev. Thos. Paulin, Presbyterian
2	10 January 1898	James Nelson Bertha Hunter	James Nelson Bettria Hunter 💍 1898/2695	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolteacher	28 32	Saddle Hill Saddle Hill	5 days 32 years	House of John Hunter, Saddle Hill	98/1050		10 January 1898	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
3	12 January 1898	Neil Ralston Maria List	Neil Ralston Maria List 💍 1898/897	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 20	Allanton Allanton	24 years 20 years	House of James List, Allanton	98/1051	James List, father	12 January 1898	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
4	24 January 1898	Robert Mattinson Anne Isabella Gibson	Robert Mathison Anna Isabella Gibson 💍 1898/888	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	27 27	North Taieri North Taieri	3 days 27 years	House of Robert Gibson, North Taieri	98/1048		24 January 1898	Rev. Thos. Paulin, Presbyterian
5	15 March 1898	David Thomson Shand Jane Sangster Anderson	David Thomson Shand Jane Sangster Anderson 💍 1898/889	Widower Spinster	Farmer	37 33	Wylie's Crossing North Taieri	12 years 33 years	House of George Blyth, Anderson, North Taieri	98/1049		15 March 1898	Rev. Thos. Paulin, Presbyterian
6	18 March 1898	Joseph Bonner Warthur Jemima Stevenson	Joseph Bonner MacArthur Jemima Stevenson 💍 1898/886	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	43 42	Saddle Hill Saddle Hill	12 years 2 weeks	House of Thomas Marr, Saddle Hill	98/1046		18 March 1898	Rev. M. Watt, Presbyterian
7	19 March 1898	James Waddell Blair Annie Carmichael	James Waddell Blair Annie Carmichael 💍 1898/2696	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 27	West Taieri North Taieri	7 years 20 years	House of Wm. Carmichael, North Taieri	98/1052		19 March 1898	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian
8	25 March 1898	Henry Purvis Elizabeth Todd	Henry Purvis Elizabeth Todd 💍 1898/2698	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	37 31	Mosgiel Mosgiel	10 months 31 years	House of Alexander Todd, Mosgiel	98/1054		25 March 1898	Rev. Wm. Will, Presbyterian

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).