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 794

District of Hokitika 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
10	1 April 1898	Nicholas Davies Minnie Anna Matilda Geibel	Nicholas Davies Minnie Anna Matilda Geibel 💍 1898/1686	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	37 25	Humphrey's Gully Humphrey's Gully	10 years 25 years	All Saints Anglican Church, Hokitika	98/1919		1 April 1898	Rev. Staples Hamilton
11	1 April 1898	John Merewether Edith Jane Garner	John Merewether Edith Jane Garner 💍 1898/1706	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	30 24	Piper's Flat Stafford	30 years 24 years	Anglican Church, Stafford	98/1926		1 April 1898	Rev. Edwin Whitehouse
12	12 April 1898	James Macbeath Jane Rennie Wells	James Macbeath Jane Rennie Wells 💍 1898/1697	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	45 25	Hokitika Hokitika	18 years 25 years	Anglican Church, Hokitika	98/1920		12 April 1898	Rev. Staples Hamilton
13	14 April 1898	John Richards Ann Greenshields	John Richards Ann Greenshields 💍 1898/1678	Bachelor Widow	Coal Miner Domestic	26 35	Taylorville N.Z. Taylorville N.Z.	5 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	98/1918		14 April 1898	William George Douglas, Registrar Hokitika
14	18 April 1898	Richard O'Brien Grace Watson	Richard OBrien Grace Watson 💍 1898/1677	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	25 23	Rimu Rimu	25 years 12 years	Residence of John Foster, Woodstock	98/1917		18 April 1898	Rev. W. Hoyland
15	5 May 1898	Joseph Grimmon Margaret Isabel Macfarlane	Joseph Grimmond Margaret Isabella Macfarlane 💍 1898/1673	Widower Spinster	Mine Manager Domestic	54 33	Hokitika Hokitika	4 days 10 years	Residence of Duncan Macfarlane, Jewell Street, Hokitika	98/1913		5 May 1898	Rev. W. Douglas
16	9 May 1898	John Watson Maunder Jane Elizabeth Fishwick	John Watson Maunder Jane Elizabeth Fishwick 💍 1898/1671	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	24 24	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 24 years	Residence of John Maunder, North Revell Street, Hokitika	98/1912		9 May 1898	Rev. W. Douglas
17	16 May 1898	Thomas Fitzgerald Mary Margaret Ward	Thomas Fitzgerald Mary Margaret Ward 💍 1898/1676	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	34 30	Hokitika Arahura	3 days 30 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	98/1916		16 May 1898	Rev. S. L. Martin
18	20 May 1898	John Paterson Agnes Peake	John Paterson Agnes Peake 💍 1898/1670	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	25 19	Hokitika Hokitika	25 years 19 years	Residence of John Peake Junr, Hanieri Tramway	98/1911	John Peake Senr., father	20 May 1898	Rev. W. Douglas
19	21 May 1898	Frederick Oscar Lindstrom Lilian Jane Keane	Fredrick Oscar Linstrom Lilian Jane Keane 💍 1898/1651	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Spinster	28 23	Reefton Hokitika	8 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church, Reefton	98/1891		21 May 1898	Rev. J. Macnamara

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).