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 742

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
182	30 April 1898	William Bushill Ada Mary Bond	William Bushill Ada Mary Bond 💍 1898/1571	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 17	Petone Petone	8 months 2 years	House of Richard Bond, Petone	98/1811	Richard Bond, father	30 April 1898	Revd. H. Lear Thomson
183	2 May 1898	Thomas Henry Robinson Annie Catherine Longhurst	Thomas Henry Robinson Annie Catherine Longhurst 💍 1898/1488	Bachelor Divorced	Farmer	34 31	Makara Makara	34 years 31 years	Registrar's Office	98/1725		2 May 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
184	3 May 1898	John George Prince Margaret Brown	John George Prince Margaret Brown 💍 1898/1606	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	34 23	Wellington Wellington	34 years 2 years	Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Wellington	98/1822		3 May 1898	Revd. Richard Hall
185	4 May 1898	Robert Miller Euphemia Gilchrist	Robert Miller Euphemia Gilchrist 💍 1898/1584	Widower Spinster	Engineer	38 30	Wellington Wellington	9 years 1 year	House of H. C. Edward, South Road, Wellington	98/1800		4 May 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer
186	5 May 1898	Arthur Turner Amelia Thornton	Arthur Turner Amelia Thornton 💍 1898/1496	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	26 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	98/1726		6 May 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
187	5 May 1898	Timothy Cronin Eliza Headifen	Timothy Cronin Eliza Headifen 💍 1898/1507	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	41 26	Wellington Wellington	22 years 26 years	Registrar's Office	98/1727		5 May 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
188	6 May 1898	William Vincent Oswald Kathleen Inman Barker	William Vincent Oswald Barker Kathleen Inman 💍 1898/1514	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 21	Wellington Hobart	9 months 21 years	Registrar's Office	98/1728		6 May 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
189	6 May 1898	Joseph Ignatius Hynes Annie Maria Barr	Joseph Ignatius Hynes Annie Marie Barr 💍 1898/1560	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	26 26	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 year	St. Mary's of the Angels Church, Boulcott Street, Wellington	98/1774		6 May 1898	Revd. Jno. Ainsworth
190	9 May 1898	Collingwood Goodin Laura Read	Collingwood Goodin Laura Read 💍 1898/1607	Widower Spinster	Farmer	62 24	Taratahi, Wairarapa Wellington	32 years 20 years	House of Mr. C. R. Read, Austin Street, Wellington	98/1823		10 May 1898	Revd. H. B. Redstone
191	9 May 1898	William Oliver Eva Helen Hogg	William Oliver Eva Helen Hogg 💍 1898/1515	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	23 years 21 years	Registrar's Office	98/1729		9 May 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

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).