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 135

District of Stratford 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
27	09 July 1898	John Christianson Ane Maria Jonson	John Christiansen Ane Maui Jensen 💍 1898/3988	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 35	Midhurst Norfolk Road	10 years 12 months	The Residence of John Christianson, Cross Road, Midhurst	98/3529		09 July 1898	George Clement, Primitive Methodist
28	21 July 1898	Martin Bilderbeck Marthe Mischawski	Martin Bilderbeck Martha Mischenski 💍 1898/4372	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill hand	25 18	Midhurst Midhurst	1 year 18 years	The Roman Catholic Church at Stratford	98/4076	John Mischawski, father	21 July 1898	Wm Johnson, Roman Catholic
29	27 July 1898	Albert Sheard Clara Watkin	Albert Sheard Clara Watkin 💍 1898/3641	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Cardiff Cardiff	8 years 15 years	The Residence of John Watkin, Cardiff	98/2853	John Watkin, father	27 July 1898	F. J. Read, Wesleyan
30	01 August 1898	Charles Edward McQuinness Annie Brodie	Charles Edward McGuinness Annie Brodie 💍 1898/3650	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	36 26	Mangatoki Toko	2 months 2 years	The Toko Hotel at Toko	98/2856		01 August 1898	B. Hutson, Presbyterian
31	06 August 1898	Stephen Joseph Bennett Flora Emma Leppian	Stephen Joseph Bennett Flora Emma Leppien 💍 1898/3648	Bachelor Spinster	Buttermaker	23 20	Mangatoki Rowan	4 years 9 years	The Residence of R. Robinson, Manaia Road, Kaponga	98/2854	Frederica Robinson, mother	06 August 1898	F. J. Read, Wesleyan
32	16 August 1898	Walter Cate Hester Ann Tisch	Walter Cate Esther Ann Tisch 💍 1898/3989	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Stratford Stratford	7 years 20 years	The Residence of Wm Cate, Monmouth Road, Stratford	98/3530		06 August 1898	Geo. Clement, Primitive Methodist
33	18 August 1898	Joseph McCracken Caroline Cook	Joseph McCracken Caroline Cook 💍 1898/3651	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 27	Stratford Stratford	9 years 5 years	The Manse at Stratford	98/2857		08 August 1898	B. Hutson, 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).