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 828

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
286	20 June 1898	Thomas Munro Elizabeth Pattinson	Thomas Munro Elizabeth Ann Pattinson 💍 1898/1746	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	Baptist Church	98/1990		20 June 1898	Rev. T. A. Williams, Baptist
287	20 June 1898	James Grant Mary Elizabeth Townsend	James Grant Ogilvie-Grant Mary Elizabeth Nina Townend 💍 1898/1789	Bachelor Spinster	Parr of United Kingdom	22 21	Christchurch Fendalton	10 years 1 year	P. Barnabas Church	98/2017		20 June 1898	Rev. Canon Hade, Church of England
288	21 June 1898	Jonathan Bennett Alice Rose Wooding	Jonathan Bennett Alice Rose Wooding 💍 1898/1719	Bachelor Spinster	Electrical Engineer	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	98/1962		21 June 1898	Registrar, J. W. Masson
289	21 June 1898	Simon Macdonald Annie Vivian	Simon Macdonald Annie Vivian 💍 1898/3045	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	26 20	Christchurch Lichfield St, Christchurch	2 years 18 months	House of Mr. Gillingham	98/3220	Jacob Vivian, Father	21 June 1898	Rev. H. Scott Allan, Presbyterian
290	22 June 1898	Cecil Tanforth Greenwood Lottie Annie McIntyre	Cecil Danforth Greenwood Lottie Annie McIntyre 💍 1898/1744	Widower Widow	Surgeon	37 26	Christchurch Christchurch	18 months 2 years	St. John's Church	98/1988		22 June 1898	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
291	22 June 1898	John Hawdon Barnes Oliver Agnes Margaret McIlraith	John Hawdon Barnes Oliver Agnes Margaret McIlraith 💍 1898/1738	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep-farmer	32 30	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 20 years	St. Andrew's Church	98/1981		22 June 1898	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian
292	22 June 1898	Herbert William Coleman Violet Agnes Weir	Herbert William Coleman Viollete Amyes 💍 1898/1773	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	32 36	Christchurch Riccarton	3 months 1 year	House of Mr. Cameron, Lower	98/1995		22 June 1898	Rev. R. Drummond, Presbyterian

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).