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 146

District of Hastings 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
14	7 July 1898	Ekerera Thennakena Anihna Sella-mairangi		Bachelor Spinster	Native Native	22 28	Waipawa Hastings Waipawa Hastings	8 years 20 years	Registrar's Office Hastings	98/2870		7 July 1898	Robert Brathwaite
15	11 July 1898	William Geddes Delia O'Neill	William Geddes Delia ONeill 💍 1898/3645	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 22	Hastings Hastings	8 years 14 years	Residence of Father Smyth	98/2874		11 July 1898	Father Smyth
16	23 July 1898	Alexander Brain Catherine Wright	Alexander Beavin Catherine Wright 💍 1898/3642	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	47 44	Hastings Hastings	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	98/2871		23 July 1898	Robert Brathwaite
17	23 July 1898	John Henry Notton Louisa Golding	John Henry Wotton Louisa Golding 💍 1898/3175	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Hastings Havelock H. Bay	4 years 18 years	House of Rev. Alex Morrison	98/3569	Henry Golding, Father	23 July 1898	Rev. Alex Morrison
18	8 August 1898	William Thomas Smith Clara Agnes Longley	William Thomas Smith Clara Agnes Langley 💍 1898/2909	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	23 21	Longlands Hastings	18 months 8 years	St. Matthews	98/2877		8 August 1898	Rev. John Hobbs
19	15 August 1898	Frederick Charles Snow Margaret Brown	Frederick Charles Sparks Margaret Brown 💍 1898/3643	Married Spinster	Music Teacher	38 28	Hastings Hastings	4 days 4 months	Registrar's Office Hastings	98/2872		15 August 1898	Robert Brathwaite
20	13 August 1898	Herbert Teagle Mary Adelaide Tucker	Herbert Neagle Mary Adelaide Tucker 💍 1898/2920 Herbert Henry Ogden Mary Josephine Tucker 💍 1898/213	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 23	Tuki Tuki H. Bay Clive Hawkes Bay	23 years 20 years	St. Marks Clive	98/2878		13 August 1898	Rev. Canon P. Hill
21	15 August 1898	William John Gimblett Amy Bertha Cawford	William John Gimblett Amy Bertha Crawford 💍 1898/3646	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 23	Hastings Havelock H. Bay	1 year 23 years	Presbyterian Church Havelock	98/2875		15 August 1898	Rev. Alex White
22	15 August 1898	John Harvey Junr. Alice Mary Cawford	John Harvey Jr Alice Mary Crawford 💍 1898/3647	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 27	Havelock H. Bay Havelock H. Bay	20 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church Havelock	98/2876		15 August 1898	Rev. Alex White

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).