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 235

District of Wellington 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
61	9 February 1898	Thomas Trenewan Maria Moseled	Thomas Tremewan Maria Mexted 💍 1898/558	Widower Spinster	Farmer	59 37	Tawa Flat Tawa Flat	19 years 37 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/595		9 February 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
62	9 February 1898	Thomas James Longhurst Kate Barnes	Thomas James Longhurst Kate Barnes 💍 1898/559	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	26 19	Makara Makara	26 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/596	Mary Barnes, mother	9 February 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
63	9 February 1898	William John Burch Julia Christina Chapman	William John Burch Julia Christina Chapman 💍 1898/473	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 19	Wellington Wellington	20 years 10 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church	98/502	Margaret Chapman, mother	10 February 1898	Rev. J. H. Elliott
64	14 February 1898	Robert Ellis Wood Nellie Elizabeth Heywood	Robert Ellis Wood Nellie Elizabeth Haywood 💍 1898/516	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	31 25	Wellington Wellington	3 years 20 years	St. Pauls Pro-Cathedral, Wellington	98/548		14 February 1898	Rev. T. H. Sprott
65	14 February 1898	Andrew Bell Philp Maria Elizabeth Ann Topp	Andrew Bell Philp Maria Elizabeth Ann Topp 💍 1898/477	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	34 31	Kilbirnie Wellington	18 months 25 years	St. Marks Church	98/514		14 February 1898	Rev. Richard Coffey
66	14 February 1898	John Purdie Smith Laura West	John Purdie Smith Laura West 💍 1898/474	Bachelor Spinster	Bicycle Mechanic	25 26	Wellington Dunedin	4 months 26 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church	98/503		21 February 1898	Rev. J. H. Elliott
67	15 February 1898	Francis McLaughlin Annie King	Francis McLaughlin Annie King 💍 1898/475	Bachelor Spinster	Perambulator Maker	22 19	Wellington Wellington	22 years 4 years	The private residence of F. W. Henry McLaughlin, 39 Kent Terrace, Wellington	98/504	Annie King, mother	15 February 1898	Rev. William Simpson, Fernie
68	15 February 1898	Henry Robert Page Margaret McCormack	Henry Robert Page Margaret McCormack 💍 1898/541	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 23	Wellington Wellington	20 years 5 years	Congregational Church, Courtenay Place	98/574

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).