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 445

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1898 Registrar Henry Hawthorne Grant Ralfe

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

1943

4 January 1898

Hugh Frew
Mary Gordon

Hugh Frew
Mary Gordon
💍 1898/948

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd

25
20

Oamaru
Oamaru

25 years
19 years

At the House of Mr. Robert Gordon, Eden Street, Oamaru

98/1116

Robert Gordon (father)

4 January 1898

Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1943
Date of Notice	4 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Frew	Mary Gordon
	💍 1898/948
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	25 years	19 years
Marriage Place	At the House of Mr. Robert Gordon, Eden Street, Oamaru
Folio	98/1116
Consent	Robert Gordon (father)
Date of Certificate	4 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

1944

7 January 1898

Frederick William George McLeod
Hannah Ellen Turnbull

Frederick William George McLeod
Hannah Elder Turnbull
💍 1898/949

Bachelor
Spinster

Compositor
Tailoress

25
24

Oamaru
Oamaru

11 years
24 years

At St. Paul's (Presbyterian) Church at Oamaru

98/1117

7 January 1898

Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1944
Date of Notice	7 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick William George McLeod	Hannah Ellen Turnbull
BDM Match (95%)	Frederick William George McLeod	Hannah Elder Turnbull
	💍 1898/949
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Compositor	Tailoress
Age	25	24
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	11 years	24 years
Marriage Place	At St. Paul's (Presbyterian) Church at Oamaru
Folio	98/1117
Consent
Date of Certificate	7 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Milne (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

1945

24 January 1898

Alfred Smith
Catherine Green

Alfred Smith
Catherine Green
💍 1898/944

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
19

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
3 days

At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru

98/1113

Gilbert Green (father)

24 January 1898

Henry H. G. Ralfe, Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru

No	1945
Date of Notice	24 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Smith	Catherine Green
	💍 1898/944
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	19
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
Folio	98/1113
Consent	Gilbert Green (father)
Date of Certificate	24 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Henry H. G. Ralfe, Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru

1946

25 January 1898

David Griffin
Ellen Mullin

David Griffin
Ellen Mullin
💍 1898/950

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

26
26

Oamaru
Oamaru

3 days
3 weeks

At the Roman Catholic Church, Reed Street, Oamaru

98/1118

25 January 1898

Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

No	1946
Date of Notice	25 January 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Griffin	Ellen Mullin
	💍 1898/950
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	26	26
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Oamaru
Length of Residence	3 days	3 weeks
Marriage Place	At the Roman Catholic Church, Reed Street, Oamaru
Folio	98/1118
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1898
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. John Mackay (Roman Catholic Church)

1947

8 February 1898

Matthew Stuart Holmes
Florence Ellen Reid

Mathew Stuart Holmes
Florence Ellen Reid
💍 1898/2295

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Gentlewoman

42
21

Oamaru
Elderslie, Oamaru

4 days
5 years

At the Presbyterian Church at Enfield

98/2349

8 February 1898

Rev. James Standring (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

No	1947
Date of Notice	8 February 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Matthew Stuart Holmes	Florence Ellen Reid
BDM Match (98%)	Mathew Stuart Holmes	Florence Ellen Reid
	💍 1898/2295
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Gentlewoman
Age	42	21
Dwelling Place	Oamaru	Elderslie, Oamaru
Length of Residence	4 days	5 years
Marriage Place	At the Presbyterian Church at Enfield
Folio	98/2349
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 February 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Standring (Presbyterian Church of Otago & Southland)

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).