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 079

District of Ohinemuri 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
102	2 July 1898	Josiah Peter Rannish Margaret Coleman	Josiah Peter Bannister Margaret Coleman 💍 1898/3688	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith	39 26	Paeroa Paeroa	2 years 1 week	Residence of Mr. Stratford, Paeroa	98/2820		2 July 1898	Father Haskett, Paeroa
103	16 July 1898	John Powell Annie Elizabeth Bramley	John Powell Annie Elizabeth Bramley 💍 1898/3616	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith	32 20	Paeroa Paeroa	1 year 1 year	Wesleyan Church, Paeroa	98/2778		16 July 1898	J. W. Burton, Wesleyan, Paeroa
104	1 August 1898	Alexander McMurran Margaret McGlymont	Alexander McGruer Margaret McClymont 💍 1898/3626	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 17	Karangahake Karangahake	10 years 2 years	Dwelling of Mr. McGlymont, Karangahake	98/2782		1 August 1898	E. O. Parry, Waihi
105	1 August 1898	John Ritchie Muddelman Eleanor Tuft	John Ritchie Malcolmson Eleanor Tuft 💍 1898/3624	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 24	Waihi Paeroa	5 months 2 months	Residence of Mr. Hughes, Paeroa	98/2780		1 August 1898	E. O. Parry, Waihi
106	8 August 1898	Ernest Robert Mathieson Lily Jackson	Ernest Robert Mathieson Lily Jackson 💍 1898/3605	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 17	Karangahake Paeroa	8 months 1 month	Registrar's Office, Paeroa	98/2777	Eliza Jackson, mother	8 August 1898	Registrar, Paeroa
107	2 September 1898	Edwin Charles Brown Catherine Dwyer	Edwin Charles Huon Catherine Dwyer 💍 1898/3627	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Paeroa Paeroa	18 months 3 years	English Church, Paeroa	98/2788	Mary Dwyer, mother	2 September 1898	Wm. H. Wilson, Paeroa
108	3 September 1898	Thomas Quigley Ellen Loughnan	Thomas Quigley Ellen Laughman 💍 1898/4267	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	38 32	Karangahake Paeroa	6 years 3 years	Catholic Church, Paeroa	98/3630		3 September 1898	Father Haskett, Paeroa
109	5 September 1898	Richard Hy. Mitchell Barbara Law	Richard Henry Mitchell Barbara Law 💍 1898/3625	Bachelor Spinster	Battery Hand	22 21	Karangahake Karangahake	3 years 4 years	Dwelling House of Mr. J. Law, Karangahake	98/2781		5 September 1898	John Mackenzie, Thames
110	20 September 1898	William Pearson Louisa Mary Tuck	William Pearson Louisa Mary Tuck 💍 1898/3623	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	30 23	Waihi Paeroa	10 years 3 months	Dwelling House of Mr. W. C. Tuck, Paeroa	98/2779		20 September 1898	J. W. Burton, Paeroa

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).