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 870

District of Timaru 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
25	25 April 1898	William John Rooney Janet Clara Ferguson	William John Rooney Janet Clara Ferguson 💍 1898/2272	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic Servant	25 24	Timaru Timaru	25 years 2 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. W. Gillies, Timaru	98/2555		25 April 1898	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
26	26 April 1898	Horace William Samuel Ruffell Ruth Annie Williams	Horace William Samuel Ruffell Ruth Annie Williams 💍 1898/1879	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Adair Adair	3 days 5 years	St. Mark's English Church, Beaconsfield	98/2135		26 April 1898	Rev. L. C. Brady, Church of England Clergyman
27	27 April 1898	Arthur Henry Bourn Edith Withers Boure	Arthur Henry Bourn Edith Witters Bowie 💍 1898/1872	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	29 25	Timaru Timaru	4 years 25 years	St. Mary's Church, Timaru	98/2126		27 April 1898	Rev. J. M. Whitehead, Church of England Clergyman
28	5 May 1898	John Thomas Scott Margaret Ann Hately	John Thomas Scott Margaret Ann Hately 💍 1898/2273	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22	Timaru Timaru	4 months 6 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Herr, Heaton Street, Timaru	98/2536		5 May 1898	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
29	12 May 1898	Henry John Sutton Alice Ann Rothwell	Henry John Sutton Alice Ann Rothwell 💍 1898/2714	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 20	Timaru Timaru	22 years 6 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	98/2133	James Rothwell, Father of Bride	12 May 1898	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar
30	17 May 1898	Thomas Thomson Elizabeth Saunders Robinson	Thomas Thomson Elizabeth Saunders Robinson 💍 1898/1873	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	43 20	Timaru Timaru	20 years 20 years	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	98/2127	Samuel Robinson, Father of Bride	17 May 1898	Rev. J. M. Whitehead, Church of England Clergyman
31	18 May 1898	Joseph Goodman Annie Elizabeth Jane Stokes	Joseph Goodman Annie Elizabeth Jane Stokes 💍 1898/1874	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 26	Timaru Timaru	29 years 16 years	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	98/2128		18 May 1898	Rev. J. M. Whitehead, Church of England Clergyman
32	21 May 1898	Michael Dalton Norah Horgan	Michael Dalton Norah Horgan 💍 1898/1876	Widower Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	36 29	Waimataitai Near Timaru	15 years 14 years	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	98/2130		21 May 1898	Rev. John Tubman, Roman Catholic Priest
33	7 June 1898	Augustus Frederick Johnson Amelia Turner	Augustus Frederick Johnson Amelia Turner 💍 1898/2274	Widower Widow	Telegraph Lineman Nurse	66 41	Timaru Timaru	20 years 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Bridegroom, William Street, Timaru	98/2557		7 June 1898	Rev. P. W. Jones, Primitive Methodist Minister; W. Gillies

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).