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 204

District of Palmerston North 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
44	25 July 1898	George Currie Russell Ada Annie Russell	George Currie Ada Annie Russell 💍 1898/3737	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 17	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 18 months	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	98/2941	Joseph Bylon Russell, father	25 July 1898	Robt. N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
45	26 July 1898	Arthur Henry Haddon Elizabeth Charker	Arthur Henry Haddon Elizabeth Charker 💍 1898/3749	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 20	Palmerston North Palmerston North	9 months 12 years	At the house of D. Charker, Palmerston North	98/2947	Daniel Charker, father	26 July 1898	Revd Jas. Wrigley, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
46	9 August 1898	John George Gottlieh Lueh Magdalena Rosina Gattsche	John George Gottlick Keech Magdalena Rosina Gattishe 💍 1898/3748	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	33 27	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 7 years	At the house of J. Gattsche, Palmerston North	98/2946		9 August 1898	Revd C.C. Dreyer, Lutheran Minister, Marton
47	12 August 1898	Henry Herbert Newport Hulda Loreuse Constance Beyereen	Henry Herbert Newport Hilda Lorense Constanse Bergersen 💍 1898/3750	Bachelor Spinster	Nurseryman	24 19	Palmerston North Palmerston North	2 years 7 years	At the house of C.A. Beyereen, Palmerston North	98/2948	Carl August Bergersen, father	12 August 1898	Revd Jas. Wrigley, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
48	22 August 1898	William Francis Davis Georgina Jolly	William Francis Davis Georgina Jolly 💍 1898/4120	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Tailoress	26 24	Palmerston North Palmerston North	16 years 16 years	At the house of Margaret Jolly, Palmerston North	98/3573		22 August 1898	Revd Wm. Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
49	24 August 1898	William Arthur Hym Emma Reimer	William Arthur Flynn Emma Margaret Primmer 💍 1898/2507	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 26	Aorangi Palmerston North	14 years 1 year	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	98/3722		24 August 1898	Revd J.F. Patterson, C.P., Palmerston North
50	26 August 1898	Charles Chambers Janet Henderson	Charles Chambers Janet Henderson 💍 1898/4121 James Walker Junr Janet Henderson 💍 1898/1958	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Tailoress	30 20	Palmerston North Fitzherbert	3 days 3 days	At the house of Otto Newman, Fitzherbert	98/3544	Archibald Henderson, father	29 August 1898	Revd Wm. Thomson, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North

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).