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 744

District of Wellington 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
202	19 May 1898	David Alexander Thomson Mina Phillips	David Alexander Thomson Mina Phillips 💍 1898/2231	Bachelor Spinster	Business Man	27 24	Wellington Wellington	26 years 9 years	St. John's Manse, Wellington	98/2488		19 May 1898	Revd. Jas. Paterson
203	19 May 1898	William Beattie Thew Emily Parrish	William Beattie Thaw Emily Parrish 💍 1898/1574	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	34 31	Wellington Wellington	19 years 3 years	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington	98/1496		19 May 1898	Revd. Chas. Dallaston
204	19 May 1898	Edward Dowling Dunne Ada Winifred Cudby	Edward Dowling Dunne Ada Winifred Cudby 💍 1898/1608	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 27	Wellington Lower Hutt	3 years 27 years	Catholic Church, Lower Hutt	98/1824		19 May 1898	Revd. John T. Lane
205	19 May 1898	William Albert Gray Clara Hobbs	William Albert Gray Clara Hobbs 💍 1898/2234	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 22	Khandallah Khandallah	4 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. D. Hobbs, Khandallah	98/2491		19 May 1898	Revd. J. M. Chapman
206	20 May 1898	John Philp Fanny Wood	John Philp Fanny Wood 💍 1898/1516	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 20	Petone Petone	20 years 20 years	Registrar's Office	98/1730	Wm. Wood, father	20 May 1898	J. M. Mansfield, Registrar
207	21 May 1898	John James Patrick Brown Josephine Mary Hardwick	John James Patrick Brown Josephine Mary Hardwick 💍 1898/1539	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 25	Wellington Wellington	22 years 10 years	St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	98/1779		21 May 1898	Revd. Jno. Ainsworth
208	23 May 1898	Charles Clarke Mills Annie Langler	Charles Clarke Mills Annie Langler 💍 1898/1532	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	48 30	Wellington Wellington	3 months 3 months	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington	98/1754		23 May 1898	Revd. T. H. Sprott
209	23 May 1898	Thomas John Allen Carmont Rhoda Jane Stewart	Thomas John Allen Carmont Rhoda Jane Stewart 💍 1898/1517	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Otaki Martinborough	22 years 5 years	Registrar's Office	98/1731		23 May 1898	J. M. Mansfield, Registrar
210	29 May 1898	Francis Edwin Wright Rosa Goddard	Francis Edwin Wright Rosa Goddard 💍 1898/1509	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 24	Wellington Wellington	25 years 4 years	Manse, Pirie Street, Wellington	98/1746		29 May 1898	Revd. J. K. Elliott
211	30 May 1898	Gustav Mendt Mary Elizabeth Edwards	Gustav Mendt Mary Elizabeth Edwards 💍 1898/1585	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	25 27	Wellington Wellington	5 years 2 years	House of Mr. Patterson, Patent Slip, Evans Bay	98/1801		30 May 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer

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).