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 489

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
176	1 April 1898	Thomas Lace Caley Josephine Spence	Thomas Lace Caley Josephine Spence 💍 1898/1123	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic duties	33 27	Auckland Auckland	33 years 15 years	House of Father of Bride, Pollen Street, Auckland	98/1312		1 April 1898	Rev. H. H. Lawry, Wesleyan
177	1 April 1898	Robert Johnston Emily Hope Hesketh	Robert Johnston Emily Hope Hesketh 💍 1898/1023	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller Domestic duties	28 26	Auckland Remuera	15 years 26 years	St. Mark's Church, Remuera	98/1207		1 April 1898	Rev. W. Beatty, M.A., Church of England
178	2 April 1898	Henry Martin Katherine Isabella Shepherd	Henry Martin Katherine Isabella Shepherd 💍 1898/1034	Bachelor Widow	Upholsterer Domestic duties	22 30	Auckland Auckland	12 months 2 years	House of the Bride, Melrose, Devonport	98/1244		2 April 1898	Rev. R. Ferguson, Presbyterian
179	2 April 1898	Charles Holland Fanny Marsh		Bachelor Spinster	Gum-digger Domestic duties	29 23	Ararimu Ararimu	8 months 8 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/1171		2 April 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
180	2 April 1898	John Alfred McDell Bertha Emily Colbourne	John Alfred McDell Bertha Emily Colbourne 💍 1898/1048	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic duties	27 19	Parnell Remuera	9 years 19 years	Presbyterian Church, Remuera	98/1236	Mr. Colbourne, Mother	2 April 1898	Rev. G. B. Monro, Presbyterian
181	4 April 1898	Samuel Rout Mary Shanning	Samuel Rout Mary Shanning 💍 1898/2810	Widower Spinster	Agent Domestic duties	62 35	Auckland Auckland	50 years 9 years	House of Bride, Nugent Street, Kyber Pass	98/1309		4 April 1898	Rev. Joseph Clark, Baptist
182	4 April 1898	Stephen Henry Bray Jessie Morley	Stephen Henry Bray Jessie Mason Morley 💍 1898/1031	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic duties	27 25	Auckland Auckland	27 years 25 years	St. Luke's Church, Mount Albert	98/1340		4 April 1898	Rev. F. Larkins, Church of England

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).