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 039

District of Drury 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
18	16 July 1898	Hendry Luke Christina Jane Henderson	Hendry Luke Christina Jane Henderson 💍 1898/2939	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 23	Clevedon Clevedon	7 years 16 years	Presbyterian Church, Clevedon	98/2744		16 July 1898	Rev. Thos. Home, Presbyterian Minister
19	22 July 1898	William George Waugh Sarah Archibald	William George Waugh Sarah Wootten 💍 1898/2941	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 25	Paparata Bombay	23 years 17 years	House of Charles Dooten, Bombay	98/2746		20 August 1898	Rev. F. B. Dobson, Wesleyan Minister
20	20 August 1898	Arthur Rogerson Jane McCord Jamieson	Arthur Royerson Jane McCord Jamieson 💍 1898/2943	Widower Spinster	Warehouseman	39 36	Auckland Pukekohe	14 years 14 years	House of Archibald Jamieson, Paerata, Auckland	98/2747		20 August 1898	Rev. F. B. Dobson, Church of England
21	31 August 1898	Alfred Florance Coyle Mary Ann Smith	Alfred Florance Coyle Mary Ann Smith 💍 1898/2944	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Dress Maker	28 24	Auckland Tuakau	28 years 16 years	House of John Smith, Tuakau, Auckland	98/2748		27 August 1898	Rev. F. B. Dobson, Church of England
23	3 September 1898	John Thomas Loade Jane Evelyn Matilda McKenzie	John Thomas Wade Jane Evelyn Matilda McKenzie 💍 1898/2940	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Hunua Hunua	1 week 15 years	Presbyterian Church, Hunua	98/2745		3 September 1898	Rev. Thos. Home, Presbyterian Minister
24	5 September 1898	Robert Treeve Wright Maud Louisa Johns	Robert Treeve Wright Louisa Maud Johns 💍 1898/2946	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 21	Pukekohe Pukekohe	20 years 12 years	St. Andrews, Pukekohe	98/2750		5 September 1898	Rev. F. B. Dobson, Church of England
25	12 September 1898	Ernest Edward Linistrum Rebecca Josephine Twidle	Ernest Edward Linstrum Rebecca Josephine Twidle 💍 1898/3655	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 19	Onehunga Onehunga	10 years 7 years	House of John Twidle, Onehunga	98/2752	John Twidle, Father	12 September 1898	Rev. W. F. Findlay, Presbyterian Minister
26	23 September 1898	Charles Cornelius Tuely Maud Mary Parker	Charles Cornelius Tuely Maud Mary Parker 💍 1898/3666	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 22	Pukekohe Paparata	6 months 16 years	House of John Hy Parker, Paparata	98/2753		23 September 1898	Rev. W. F. Findlay, Presbyterian Minister

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).