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 319

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 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
130	29 March 1898	William Haeter White Elizabeth Alexander	William Walter White Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1898/2357	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic	40 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 4 years	Presbyterian Church North Belt	98/807		29 March 1898	Rev. Dr. Erwin, Presbyterian
131	29 March 1898	William Price Selina May Priest	William Price Selina May Priest 💍 1898/2361	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 17	Christchurch Christchurch	14 days 3 months	St. Johns Church	98/811	Frank Hodge, Father	29 March 1898	Rev. C. Gossett, Church of England
132	29 March 1898	Sylvanus Loxdale Partridge Mabel Jane Radcliffe	Sylvanius Loxdale Partridge Mabel Jane Radcliffe 💍 1898/2388	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 7 years	St. Johns Church, Latimer Square	98/815		29 March 1898	Rev. H. C. M. Watson, Church of England
133	29 March 1898	Charles William Baker Charlotte Edith Coull	Charles Williams Charlotte Edith Coull 💍 1898/682	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Domestic	29 21	St. Albans Riccarton	3 years 3 months	Registrar's Office	98/851		29 March 1898	Registrar Marriages, M. Paterson
134	29 March 1898	John Crombie Lilian Jane Simmons	John Crombie Church Lillian Jane Simmons 💍 1898/660	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	27 20	Addington Linwood	27 years 3 years	Registrar's Office	98/852	Susan Simmons, Mother	29 March 1898	Registrar Marriages, M. Paterson
135	29 March 1898	John George Lyppett Eliza Pleasant	John George Syvret Elisa Pleasant 💍 1898/2651	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Machinist	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 1 month	House of Mr. Pleasant, Stanley St.	98/854		29 March 1898	Rev. T. A. Williams, Baptist
136	29 March 1898	Richard James Williams Jane Williams	Richard James Jane Williams 💍 1898/661	Widower Widow	Porter Housekeeper	56 46	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 21 years	Registrar's Office	98/853		29 March 1898	Registrar Marriages, J. M. Paterson
137	30 March 1898	Walter Cowlin Fanny Downey	Walter Cowlin Fanny Downey 💍 1898/1768	Widower Spinster	Labourer Servant	44 37	Linwood Sydenham	9 years 7 years	House of Rev. W. S. Parsons, Harper Street	98/873		30 March 1898	Rev. W. S. Parsons, Wesleyan

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).