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 532

District of Drury 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
7/98	2 April 1898	Edmund Campbell Amy Mary McClune Purdie	Edmund Campbell Purdie Amy Mary McClune 💍 1898/1135	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	35 19	Bombay Bombay	3 years 16 years	House of Robert Mc Clune	98/1349	Robert Mc Clune, Father	2 April 1898	Reverend W. F. Findlay, Presbyterian
8/98	2 April 1898	Joseph Charles Wade Jane Mortimer Ward	Joseph Charles Wade Jane Mortimer Ward 💍 1898/1137	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 27	Kess Valley Kess Valley	4 days 22 years	House of Isaac Ward	98/1350		2 April 1898	Reverend Thos. Home, Presbyterian
9/98	6 April 1898	Sydney Laycock Parole Jane Wilson	Sydney Laycock Sarah Jane Wilson 💍 1898/1138	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper Boot maker	24 25	Papakura Papakura	3 days 5 years	House of David Wilson	98/1351		6 April 1898	Reverend O. R. Hewlett, Church of England
10/98	8 April 1898	Charles Sextre Agnes Ashton	Charles Sextie Agnes Ashton 💍 1898/1139	Bachelor Spinster	Boot maker	29 27	Auckland Ardmore	25 years 3 days	House of John Leighton	98/1352		8 April 1898	Reverend Thos. Home, Presbyterian
11/98	12 April 1898	William Hendgman Laura Emma Louisa Gibbons	William Bridgman Laura Emma Louisa Gibbons 💍 1898/1140	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 30	Weymouth Weymouth	4 days 7 years	House of Nicholas Gibbons	98/1353		12 April 1898	Reverend O. R. Hewlett, Church of England
12/98	18 April 1898	Joseph Donovan Mary Keane	Joseph Donovan Mary Quane 💍 1898/1141	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Dress maker	28 23	Bombay Ararimu	4 days 16 years	House of Patrick Keane	98/1354		19 April 1898	Reverend D. McMillan, Roman Catholic Church
13/98	20 April 1898	Herbert Arthur Mullins Charlotte F. Stephens	Herbert Arthur Mullins Charlotte Frances Stephens 💍 1898/1149	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 23	Ardmore Clevedon	9 years 16 years	All Souls Church	98/1355		20 April 1898	Reverend O. R. Hewlett, Church of England
14/98	3 May 1898	Noble Sanford Mary McCabe	Noble Sanford Mary McCabe 💍 1898/2622	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Ararimu Ararimu	3 years 16 years	House of Michael McCabe	98/1356		3 May 1898	Reverend D. McMillan, Roman Catholic Church
15/98	10 May 1898	William Munro Jennie Hughes	William Munro Jeannie Hughes 💍 1898/1160	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	21 21	Tuakau Tuakau	5 days 5 months	House of Thos. Hughes	98/1357		10 May 1898	Reverend W. F. Findlay, Presbyterian
16/98	14 June 1898	John James Black Lucy Leicester	John James Black Lucy De Esterre Parker Lindsay 💍 1898/1162	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dress maker	29 24	Waurangi Waurangi	3 months 10 years	House of James Lindsay	98/1358		14 June 1898	Reverend J. Bradbury, Church of England
17/98	25 June 1898	Christopher Frame Marian Sproul	Christopher Train Pellow Marion Sproul 💍 1898/2947	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 28	Tuakau Pukekohe	20 years 2 years	House of Frank Pellow	98/2951		25 June 1898	Reverend W. F. Findlay, 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).