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 748

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
232	10 June 1898	Thomas Henry Richards Halcione Walsh Bond	Thomas Henry Richards Halcione Walsh Bond 💍 1898/1573	Bachelor Spinster	Flesher	25 25	Petone Petone	6 months 2 years	House of R. R. Bond, Esplanade, Petone	98/1813		10 June 1898	Revd Heyr Thomson
233	11 June 1898	Reginald Fowler Russell Elizabeth Peck	Reginald Fowler Russell Elizabeth Peck 💍 1898/1498	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Tai Tai Tai Tai	26 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/1736	George Peck, father	11 June 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
234	13 June 1898	George Thistoll Millicent Maud Barnes	George Thistoll Millicent Maud Barnes 💍 1898/2232	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 19	Wellington Wellington	2 years 12 months		98/2489	Mary Barnes, mother	13 June 1898	Revd Jos Paterson
235	13 June 1898	Albert Swindale Mary Rions	Albert Swindale Mary Rioux 💍 1898/3800	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 18	Wellington Wellington	8 years 17 years	House of M. W. Millican, Barker Street, Wellington	98/3016	No person in the Colony to give consent	27 June 1898	Revd Chas Dallaston
236	13 June 1898	Frederick Jones Mary Emma Hitchinson		Widower Spinster	Salesman	51 43	Wellington Wellington	21 years 4 years	House of M. H. [illegible], 25 Baller Street, Wellington			13 June 1898	Revd J. R. Elliott
237	14 June 1898	Alfred George Walker Clarissa Martha Sarah Dean	Alfred George Walker Clarissa Martha Sarah Dean 💍 1898/1610	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	27 22	Nelson Wellington	23 years 22 years	Church of England, Karori	98/1826		14 June 1898	Revd P. L. M. Cameron
238	15 June 1898	Robert Hendle Elizabeth Hinson	Robert Hendle Elizabeth Stinson 💍 1898/1499	Divorce Widow	Butcher	33 33	Wellington Wellington	2 years 25 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/1737		15 June 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
239	16 June 1898	William Cox Edith May Mackay	William Cox Edith May Mackay 💍 1898/1500	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	27 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 6 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/1738		16 June 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
240	17 June 1898	Henry Wells Rowden Deborah Margaretta Dela Maine Furlong	Henry Wells Rowden Deborah Margaretta De La Maine Furlong 💍 1898/1511	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk C.S.	25 30	Wellington Wellington	25 years 3 years	House of R. A. E. Rowden, Brougham Street, Wellington	98/1748		17 June 1898	Revd J. R. Elliott
241	18 June 1898	Thomas Evans Florence Mary Roberts	Thomas Evans Florence Mary Roberts 💍 1898/3823	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	25 20	Wellington Wellington	5 months 20 years	Shauls Pro Cathedral, Wellington	98/3065	Walter Roberts, father	18 June 1898	Revd Thos Hy Sprott

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).