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 746

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
222	6 June 1898	George William Brooker Emma Amelia Frick	George William Brooker Emma Amelia Frick 💍 1898/1520	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	40 25	Wellington Wellington	18 months 9 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/1734		6 June 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
223	7 June 1898	James George Benjamin Emily Lugar	James George Benjamin Emily Lugar 💍 1898/1582	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	27 28	Shannon Wellington	6 months 3 years	House of M. M. E. Smith, Brooklyn	98/1798		7 June 1898	Revd Chas Dallaston
224	7 June 1898	Tom Archibald Munch Annie McGilvray	Tom Archibald Munt Annie McGilvray 💍 1898/8	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	21 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 22 months	St. Paul's Cathedral, Wellington	98/1756		7 June 1898	Revd J. H. Sprott
225	7 June 1898	Frank Death Annie Langley Smith	Frank Death Annie Langley Smith 💍 1898/1609	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 17	Taita Taita	28 years 1 year	Church of England, Taita	98/1825	Frederick George Smith, Father	13 June 1898	Revd Joshua Jones
226	7 June 1898	James Gibson Briant Tolla Laura Izett	James Gibson Briant Tolla Laura Izett 💍 1898/1565	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 29	Wellington Wellington	14 years 14 months	House of M. J. G. Le Brun, Mowbray Street, Wellington	98/1805		7 June 1898	Revd W. A. Evans
227	7 June 1898	John O'Carroll Elizabeth Jane Rowe	John O'Carroll Elizabeth Jane Rowe 💍 1898/1497	Bachelor Widow	Baker	34 38	Wellington Wellington	2 months 12 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/1735		7 June 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
228	7 June 1898	Albert James Abbott Louise Marie Toyward	Albert James Abbott Louise Marie Toxward 💍 1898/2214	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 23	Wellington Wellington	5 1/2 years 23 months	House of M. D. M. Luckie, Halswell Street, Wellington	98/2495		7 June 1898	Revd C. S. Ogg
229	8 June 1898	Matthew Henry Richard Jeffery Annie Maude Taylor	Matthew Henry Richard Jeffery Annie Maud Taylor 💍 1898/2215	Bachelor Spinster	Gasfitter	27 25	Wellington Ascot Vale, Victoria	1 year 25 years	House of M. Stone, 8 Princess Street, Wellington	98/2496		8 June 1898	Revd C. S. Ogg
230	8 June 1898	Harry Matthews Clara Amelia Squire	Harry Matthew Clara Amelia Squire 💍 1898/1522	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	29 27	Wellington Wellington	8 years 5 months	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	98/1760		8 June 1898	Revd W. C. Waters
231	9 June 1898	John Lake Rosina Eva Holloway	John Cate Rosina Ann Holloway Matthews 💍 1898/1556	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Wellington Wellington	6 years 21 months	St. Mark's Church, Wellington	98/1772		9 June 1898	Revd R. Coffey

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).