Intentions to Marry, 1898 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840414, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 27 2025

1898 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 017

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
468	30 August 1898	William Edward Sadgrove Mary Theresa Stitt	William Edward Sadgrove Mary Theresa Stitt 💍 1898/3597	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	30 24	Auckland Auckland	30 years 24 years	Roman Catholic Church, Panmure	98/2702		30 August 1898	Very Rev. W. McDonald, Roman Catholic
469	30 August 1898	Charles Arthur Collins Kate Lee	Charles Arthur Collins Kate Lee 💍 1898/2886	Bachelor Widow	Fireman	30 32	Auckland Auckland	15 years 15 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/2639		30 August 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
470	31 August 1898	John Herbert Boone Maud Tipper	John Herbert Boone Maud Tipper 💍 1898/2887	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 19	Auckland Auckland	17 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/2640	Christopher Tipper, father	31 August 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
471	31 August 1898	John Neill Therese Josephine Gibbons Reid	John Neill Therese Josephine Gibbons Reid 💍 1898/2955	Divorced 30 June 1891 Spinster	Saw mill manager	39 22	Onehunga Onehunga	6 years 22 years	House of Mrs. J. A. Gibbons, Onehunga	98/2827		31 August 1898	Rev. R. Sommerville, Presbyterian
472	31 August 1898	Henry Joseph Aitkin Donald Emma Mary Scott	Henry Joseph Aitken Donald Emma Mary Scott 💍 1898/3594	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	31 25	Auckland Auckland	31 years 15 years	St. Thomas' Church, Union Street, Auckland	98/2699		31 August 1898	Rev. W. M. Du Rieu, Church of England
473	1 September 1898	James Frederick Bentley Mary Ann Morrison	James Frederick Bentley Mary Ann Morrison 💍 1898/2966	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	23 22	Whangarei Auckland	2 years 4 years	House of father of Bride, Arch Hill	98/2828		1 September 1898	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
474	1 September 1898	James Hayes Annie Logan	James Hayes Annie Logan 💍 1898/3799 James Thomson Jessie Logan 💍 1899/796	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 32	Thames Auckland	28 years 32 years	House of Mrs. E. Dillon, Grafton Road	98/2662		1 September 1898	Pastor J. Clark, Baptist; R. F. Macnicol

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).