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 783

District of Nelson 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
29	6 June 1898	Joseph Hyde Annie Christina Waters	Joseph Hyde Annie Christina Waters 💍 1898/1637	Widower Widow	Carrier Household duties	65 36	Waimea Street Nelson Brook Street Nelson	6 years 3 years	Residence of George H. Frank, Harper Street Nelson	98/1869		6 June 1898	W. J. Mahoney
30	7 June 1898	Thomas Michael O'Rourke Ellen Keen	Thomas Michael Rourke Ellen Keen 💍 1898/1648	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Teacher	32 25	Murchison Nelson Richmond	5 days 21 days	Residence of Clara Ann Keen, Richmond	98/1870		7 June 1898	W. J. Mahoney
31	8 June 1898	Percy Robert Sutton Violet Emma Tasker	Percy Robert Sutton Violet Emma Tasker 💍 1898/1656	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Domestic duties	21 19	Richmond Waimea Street Nelson	21 years 19 years	Residence of Arthur Tasker, Waimea Street Nelson	98/1873	Henry Tasker, Father of Violet Emma Tasker	8 June 1898	J. H. Mackenzie
32	22 June 1898	Frank Charles Richardson Eliza Selina Holyoake	Frank Charles Richardson Eliza Selina Holyoake 💍 1898/2631	Bachelor Spinster	Mining Agent Domestic duties	37 21	Bridge Street Nelson Bridge Street Nelson	3 days 6 months	All Saints Church, Vanguard Street Nelson	98/1880		22 June 1898	F. W. Chatterton
33	27 June 1898	Walter Kenneth Atkinson Edith Martha Fanny Miles	Walter Kenneth Atkinson Edith Martha Fanny Miles 💍 1898/1640	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	24 22	Waimea Road Nelson Wakapuaka Road Nelson	4 days 4 days	All Saints Church, Vanguard Street Nelson	98/1881		27 June 1898	F. W. Chatterton
34	27 June 1898	Alfred Ernest Aaron Fear Hannah Eliza Turner	Alfred Ernest Aaron Fear Hannah Eliza Turner 💍 1898/1629	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	22 22	Admiralty Bay Admiralty Bay	5 years 22 years	Office of Registrar, Nelson	98/1868		27 June 1898	Hugh Golders, Registrar
35	30 June 1898	Thomas Brocklebank Helen Doolan	Thomas Brockelbank Helen Doolan 💍 1898/3010	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Domestic duties	28 26	Richmond Richmond	4 years 6 months	Roman Catholic Station, Manuka Street Nelson	98/3115		30 June 1898	W. J. Mahoney

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).