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 229

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1898 Registrar F.W. Mansfield

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
11	15 January 1898	William Bradey Margaret Nicol	William Bradey Margaret Nicol 💍 1898/508	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Pahautanui Pahautanui	24 years 21 years	Church of England, Pahautanui	98/561		15 January 1898	Rev Peter Lochiel Mitchell Cameron
12	18 January 1898	John Foley Rosina Wilson	John Foley Rosina Wilson 💍 1898/506	Widower Widow	Platelayer	41 43	Wellington Wellington	3 months 14 years	St Mary's Cathedral, Wellington	98/557		18 January 1898	Rev Thomas Gordon Dawson
13	18 January 1898	William Chowen Jane Aburrow	William Chaven Jane Aburrow 💍 1898/539	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 29	Wellington Wellington	7 years 18 months	Wesleyan Church, Molesworth Street, Wellington	98/572		18 January 1898	Thomas Francis Jones
14	18 January 1898	Jacques Ernest Schloss Gertrude Lachmann	Jacque Ernest Schloss Gertrude Stewart Lachmann 💍 1898/2806	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	35 20	Wellington Wellington	2 years 12 years	House of Mrs J. Lachmann, 42 Webb Street, Wellington	98/496	Joseph Lachmann, father	18 January 1898	Rev James Paterson
15	18 January 1898	Fook On Choy Fook On	Fook On Choy Fook On 💍 1898/450	Married Married	Storekeeper	37 21	Wellington Wellington	16 years 6 months	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/490		18 January 1898	Rev William Baumber
16	19 January 1898	John Charles Williams Rose Sarah Russell	John Charles Woolliams Rose Sarah Russell 💍 1898/527	Bachelor Spinster	Surfaceman, City Tramways	32 19	Wellington Wellington	11 months 14 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/583	Harry J. Russell, Guardian	19 January 1898	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
17	19 January 1898	Edward Walker Moss Edith Jane Sarsfield	Edward Walker Moss Edith Jane Sarsfield 💍 1898/528	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman, Property Owner	29 30	Featherston Featherston	18 months 18 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/584		21 January 1898	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
18	19 January 1898	George Wright Agnes Taylor	George Thomas Wright Agnes Ann Taylor 💍 1898/510	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	22 20	Petone Petone	5 years 5 years	Church of Christ, Dixon Street, Wellington		Parents consent not issued
19	20 January 1898	Andrew William Williams Edith Lane	Andrew William Williams Edith Lane 💍 1898/529	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 25	Wellington Wellington	3 months 6 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/585		20 January 1898	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
20	20 January 1898	Chin Ting Ing Sing	Chin Ting Ing Sing 💍 1898/496	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 21	Pahiatua China	6 years 21 years	On board S.S. Wakatipu, Wellington	98/519		20 January 1898	Rev Charles Simmers Ogg

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).