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 741

District of Wellington 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
172	26 April 1898	Herbert Samuel Robinson Jessie Sinclair Blair	Herbert Samuel Robinson Jessie Sinclair Blair 💍 1898/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	35 28	Lyttelton Wellington	2 months 10 years	St Andrews Church, Wellington	98/2494		26 April 1898	Revd C. S. Ogg
173	26 April 1898	Robert Allison McIntyre May Evelyn Fowler	Robert Allison McIntyre May Evelyn Fowler 💍 1898/1579	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	27 27	Wellington Wellington	27 years 10 years	House of Joseph Fowler, Abel Smith Street, Wellington	98/1818		26 April 1898	Revd A. F. Turner
174	26 April 1898	Bernard Adolph Wolff Margarete Alice Farley	Bernard Adolph Wolff Margaret Alice Carley 💍 1898/1570	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 28	Cross Creek Petone	10 months 7 years	St Davids Church	98/1810		26 April 1898	Revd H. C. Thomson
175	26 April 1898	John Brown Florence May Powrie	John Brown Florence May Powrie 💍 1898/1587	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 23	Brooklyn Wellington	5 months 1 year	House of M. A. Evans, Ellice Avenue	98/1803		26 April 1898	Revd M. Albert Evans
176	26 April 1898	Harry Goodwin Elizabeth Alice Maude Belshaw	Harry Goodwin Elizabeth Alice Maude Belshaw 💍 1898/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Wellington Sydney N.S.W.	4 months 21 years	House of Revd T. F. Jones, Grant Road, Wellington	98/1819		26 April 1898	Revd Thos F. Jones
177	29 April 1898	Francis James Stewart Elizabeth Helen Petherick	Francis James Stewart Elizabeth Helen Petherick 💍 1898/1563	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 24	Auckland Wellington	2 years 2 years	House of E. H. Petherick, Ellice Street, Wellington	98/1795		29 April 1898	Revd Charles Dallaston
178	29 April 1898	Cyril Walter James Day Mabel Lydia Hark	Cyril Walter James Day Mabel Lydia Clark 💍 1898/1588	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	23 20	Wellington Wellington	6 years 6 weeks	Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian Street, Wellington	98/1820	Samuel Hark, Father	30 April 1898	Major Joseph Birkenshaw
179	29 April 1898	Mark Henry Hawthorne Margaret Jane Scott	Mark Henry Hawthorne Margaret June Scott 💍 1898/1564	Bachelor Spinster	Boot & Shoe Importer	29 29	Wellington Wellington	14 years 3 years	House of Miss Scott, 5 Hawkestone Crescent	98/1804		29 April 1898	Revd W. A. Evans
180	29 April 1898	Alfred George Webb Minnie Caroline Hancock	Alfred George Webb Minnie Caroline Hancock 💍 1898/2235	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 23	Lower Hutt Taita	30 years 10 years	House of Tom Hancock	98/2492	George Webb, Father	29 April 1898	Revd Andrew Gray
181	30 April 1898	Albert George Barlow Priscilla Elizabeth Eagles	Albert George Barlow Priscilla Elizabeth Ann Eagles 💍 1898/1599	Bachelor Spinster	Packer	21 21	Kaiwarra Crofton	6 months 14 days	House of Frances Eagles, Crofton	98/1821		30 April 1898	Revd T. F. Jones

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).