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 815

District of Christchurch 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
189	25 April 1898	Charles Buckhurst Gladys Cooley	Charles Buckmaster Gladys Cooley 💍 1898/2721	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer Domestic	40 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 3 weeks	House of Mrs. Smart, Manchester St.	98/2058	25 April 1898	Mr. Lorich Evans, Salvationist
190	25 April 1898	Edward Shaw Emma Empson	Edward Shaw Emma Empson 💍 1898/1821	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Housekeeper	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 10 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	98/2050	25 April 1898	Rev. M. J. Maruane, Roman Catholic
191	25 April 1898	Ennis Henry Barker Alma Imra May Pierce	Ennis Henry Barker Alma Nina May Pierce 💍 1898/1797	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Burwood Burwood	22 years 3 years	Burwood Church	98/2019	25 April 1898	Rev. F. R. Luwood, Church of England
192	25 April 1898	Albert Cooper Palmer Amy Elizabeth Thomas	Albert Cooper Palmer Amy Elizabeth Thomas 💍 1898/2259	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Machinist	24 21	Christchurch Christchurch	24 years 21 years	House of Rev. J. Thomas, Fife Street, Christchurch	98/2578	25 April 1898	Rev. J. Orchard, Wesleyan
193	25 April 1898	Thomas George Beamish Louisa Braher	Thomas George Beamish Louisa Maher 💍 1898/2118	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	24 25	Sydenham Sydenham	1 week 7 years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	98/2409	25 April 1898	Rev. H. Rafferty, Roman Catholic
194	26 April 1898	John Clark Arabella Gooch	John Clark Arabella Gooch 💍 1898/1748	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Governess	27 38	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 2 years	St. Michael's Church	98/1969	26 April 1898	Rev. A. W. Averill, Church of England
195	26 April 1898	William Edward Ralph Seager Catherine Siseley	William Edward Joseph Genet Catherine Sweeney 💍 1898/1822	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	28 24	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 24 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	98/2051	26 April 1898	Rev. M. J. Maruane, Roman Catholic
196	27 April 1898	Henry James Bell Kate Shea	Henry James Bell Kate Shea 💍 1898/2143	Bachelor Spinster	Leather Dresser Tailoress	29 29	Woolston Linwood	15 years 29 years	Roman Catholic Cathedral, Barbadoes St.	98/2410	27 April 1898	Very Rev. R. Cummins, Roman Catholic

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).