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 729

District of Whanganui 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
38	4 April 1898	Albert James Relph Jane Selina Hartwell	Albert James Relph Jane Selina Hartwell 💍 1898/1489	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 19	Inangamahue Whanganui	5 years 1 year	In the residence of Mrs. Susan Relph, Putiki	98/1703	No one in colony to give consent	19 April 1898	G. Bond, Wesleyan
39	5 April 1898	Phomen Singh Margaret Ford	Phomen Singh Margaret Ford 💍 1898/1492	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	28 30	Whanganui Whanganui	11 months 9 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	98/1706		5 April 1898	The Registrar
40	7 April 1898	John Anderson Kathleen Moss	John Anderson Kathleen Ross 💍 1898/1473 John Anderson Sarah Ann Knight 💍 1898/4299 John Anderson Janet Marie Potier 💍 1898/4773	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 23	Whanganui Whanganui	5 days 2 years	St. Johns Church of England, Whanganui	98/1711		7 April 1898	P. B. Maclean, Church of England
41	13 April 1898	Walter Taylor Amelia Meyers	Walter Taylor Amelia Meyers 💍 1898/1493	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 23	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	98/1707		13 April 1898	The Deputy Registrar
42	13 April 1898	James Sinclair Elizabeth Millar	James Sinclair Elizabeth Millar 💍 1898/1475 Andrew Stirling Alexander Elizabeth Millar 💍 1898/3115 James Blaikie Mary Elizabeth Millar 💍 1898/2107	Bachelor Spinster	Striker for Spring-maker	32 26	Whanganui Whanganui	5 days 5 years	In the residence of Mr. Robert Millar, Glasgow St., Whanganui	98/1713		13 April 1898	Harold Peters, Baptist
43	13 April 1898	John Herbert Townshend Wickham Jessica Clarice Morgan	John Herbert Townshend Wickham Jessica Clarice Worgan 💍 1898/1474	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Brunswick, Whanganui Whanganui	6 years 21 years	Christ Church, Church of England, Whanganui	98/1712		13 April 1898	M. H. B. Marshall, Church of England
44	13 April 1898	Arthur Edward Ruscoe Margaret Mahoney	Arthur Edward Ruscoe Margaret Mahoney 💍 1898/1482	Bachelor Spinster	Railway-Hand	21 21	Fordell, Brunswick Whanganui	14 years 21 years	In the residence of Mr. McCallum, Fordell	98/1702		13 April 1898	John Ross, 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).