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 925

District of Gore 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
8	8 April 1898	Walter Taylor Mary Downie Aitken	Walter Taylor Mary Downie Aitken 💍 1898/2016	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	28 22	Gore Gore	3 days 10 days	Residence of Andrew Aitken at Waikaka Valley	98/2281	8 April 1898	Peter Ramsay, Presbyterian Clergyman, Knapdale
9	12 April 1898	William Clark Eleanor Terrison	William Clark Eleanor Terrison 💍 1898/2020	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	18 18	Croydon Croydon	4 Years 18 Years	Residence of Louisa Clark, mother of William Clark	98/2285	12 April 1898	J. F. W. Ellis, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
10	16 April 1898	James Blathie Mary Elizabeth Millar	James Blaikie Mary Elizabeth Millar 💍 1898/2107 James Sinclair Elizabeth Millar 💍 1898/1475	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	40 25	Gore Chatton	8 Years 18 Years	Residence of James S. Millar at Chatton	98/2399	6 April 1898	J. M. Davidson, Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
11	27 April 1898	William David Napier Clementina Ann Thomson	William David Napier Clementina Ann Thomson 💍 1898/2022	Bachelor Spinster	Boatbuilder	37 22	Gore Gore	3 days 3 days	English Church at Gore	98/2287	27 April 1898	A. R. D. Tosswill, English Church Clergyman, Gore
12	19 May 1898	Walter Buick Alexandrina Taylor	Walter Buick Alexanderina Taylor 💍 1898/2017	Bachelor Spinster	Coal miner	22 19	Riversdale Riversdale	8 years 18 months	Residence of Alexandrina Taylor	98/2282	19 May 1898	J. A. Asher B.A., Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
13	27 May 1898	Albert Norman Nicholson Annie Meredith	Albert Norman Nicholson Anne Meredith 💍 1898/2018	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 23	Croydon Croydon	7 months 8 Years	Presbyterian Manse, Gore	98/2283	27 May 1898	J. A. Asher B.A., Presbyterian Clergyman, Gore
14	6 June 1898	James Wilson Annie Gardiner McKenzie	James Wilson Annie Gardiner McKenzie 💍 1898/2019	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 24	Pukerau Pukerau	3 Years 10 Years	Residence of James McKenzie, Pukerau	98/2284	6 June 1898	W. H. Howes B.A., Presbyterian Clergyman, Pukerau
15	10 June 1898	George Anderson Copland Eva Hebron Daniel	George Anderson Copland Eva Hebron Daniel 💍 1898/2140	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Doctor	30 30	Gore Gore	5 Years 3 Years	English Church, Gore	98/2288	10 June 1898	A. R. D. Tosswill, English Church Clergyman, Gore

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).