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 816

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
197	27 April 1898	Harried John Dawson Annie Mary Opitz	Warwick John Dawson Annie Maria Magey 💍 1898/1795	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist	23 23	Linwood Linwood	3 Years 4 Years	Avonside Church	98/2040		27 April 1898	Rev. A. Pascoe, Church of England
198	27 April 1898	Thomas Henry Bacon Ada Langworthy	Thomas Henry Dixon Ada Langworthy Post 💍 1898/2711	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 21	Woolston Christchurch	24 Years 8 Years	St. John's Church	98/1985		27 April 1898	Rev. H. Watson, Church of England
199	28 April 1898	George William Munday Matilda Jane Browning	George William Munday Matilda Jane Browning 💍 1898/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Tailoress	25 24	Sydenham Fendalton	25 Years 5 Years	House of Rev. D. McNicoll, Chester Street	98/2047		28 April 1898	Rev. D. McNicoll, Wesleyan
200	28 April 1898	Robert Currie Hilda Ethel Mugford	Robert Currie Hilda Ethel Mugford 💍 1898/1728	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	18 16	Christchurch Christchurch	10 Years 7 Years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	98/1950	Richard Henry Mugford, father	28 April 1898	J. M. Patterson, Registrar
201	30 April 1898	William Philip Fraser Ivy Clifford	William Philip Fraser Ivy Clifford 💍 1898/1729	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	21 Years 19 Years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	98/1951	Ellen Clifford, mother	30 April 1898	J. M. Patterson, Registrar
202	30 April 1898	John William Archer Elizabeth Sutherland	John William Archer Elizabeth Sutherland 💍 1898/1749 Donald Cameron Elizabeth Sutherland 💍 1898/2827	Bachelor Spinster	Farrier Domestic	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	23 Years 24 Years	St. Michael's Church	98/1970		30 April 1898	Rev. A. W. Averill, Church of England
203	2 May 1898	Stephen Greenwood Southen Isabella McCausland	Stephen Greenwood Southen Isabelle McCausland 💍 1898/1843	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	23 21	Christchurch Riccarton	21 Years 21 Years	St. Peter's Church	98/2074		2 May 1898	Rev. H. P. Winter, Church of England
204	3 May 1898	Cornelius O'Sullivan Mary Lynskey	Cornelius O'Sullivan Mary Lynskey 💍 1898/23	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	35 22	Christchurch Christchurch	5 Weeks 1 Year	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	98/2052		3 May 1898	Rev. M. J. Manaue, 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).