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 025

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
513	21 September 1898	William Edmund Bennett Anna Ranum	William Edmund Bennett Anna Ranum 💍 1898/2469	Divorced Spinster	City Treasurer	50 28	Auckland Auckland	18 years 8 years	Presbyterian Church, Devonport	98/2726		21 September 1898	Rev. R. Ferguson, Presbyterian
514	21 September 1898	William John Stephenson Clara Frances Ebert	William John Stephensen Clara Frances Ebert 💍 1898/3785	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	27 20	Auckland Auckland	27 years 17 years	St. Sepulchre's Church, Auckland	98/2671	George Ebert, father	21 September 1898	Rev. J. A. McNickle, Church of England
515	21 September 1898	Samuel Wing Catherine Ann Watson	Samuel Wing Catherine Ann Watson 💍 1898/4245	Widower Spinster	Accountant	46 28	Auckland Auckland	14 years 28 years	Epiphany Church, Newton	98/3797		21 September 1898	Rev. W. E. Lush, Church of England
516	22 September 1898	William Martin Ida Maud Baker	William Martin Ida Maud Baker 💍 1898/2942	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	23 23	Auckland Auckland	23 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church, Devonport	98/2729		22 September 1898	Rev. T. G. Dawson, Roman Catholic
517	23 September 1898	John Meekan Mary Strong	John Meekan Mary Strong 💍 1898/5115	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	23 25	Auckland Auckland	23 years 23 years	House of Father of Bride, Eden Terrace.	98/4916		23 September 1898	Rev. R. Scott West, Presbyterian
518	23 September 1898	Alfred John Malcolm Nicol Beatrice Evangeline Thomas	Alfred John Malcolm Nicol Beatrice Evangeline Thomas 💍 1898/4244	Bachelor Spinster	Mining agent	27 22	Auckland Auckland	2 years 5 years	St. Mary's Cathedral, Parnell	98/3796		23 September 1898	Rev. G. MacMurray, Church of England
519	24 September 1898	Joseph Payne Emma Clara Robinson	Joseph Payne Emma Clarah Robinson 💍 1898/2899	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	31 24	Auckland Auckland	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/2651		24 September 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
520	26 September 1898	Charles Moon Ellen Easton Clarkson	Charles Moon Ellen Easton Clarksen 💍 1898/5126	Bachelor Spinster	Wicker worker Compositor	29 26	Auckland Auckland	20 years 26 years	St. David's Presbyterian	98/4917		26 September 1898	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian

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).