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 224

District of WELLINGTON 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
297	30 July 1898	Ernest James David Bridge Mary McAboy	Ernest James David Benge Mary Mabey 💍 1898/2993	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Murangarua Upper Hutt	23 years 20 years	Home of Mrs. Willie, Upper Hutt	98/3060		30 July 1898	Rev. Andrew Gray
298	1 August 1898	Carl Hausmann Lillian May Ramsay	Carl Hausmann Lilian May Ramsay 💍 1898/3841	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 20	Wellington Wellington	27 years 12 years	St. Paul's Cathedral, Wellington	98/3067	Mother, Elizabeth Russell	2 August 1898	Rev. C. Harper
299	1 August 1898	Herbert Cleave Phillips Fanny Lucy Adamson	Herbert Cleaver Phillips Fanny Lucy Adamson 💍 1898/2772	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 30	Wellington Wellington	32 years 14 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	98/3533		2 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Shirer
300	2 August 1898	Samuel Grant Blanche Irwin	Samuel Grant Blanche Irwin 💍 1898/3801	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 22	Wellington Bristol, England	23 years 22 years	Home of Joseph Fry, 15 Daniel Street, Wellington	98/3026		2 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Shirer
301	3 August 1898	Alexander Campbell Mary Barr	Alexander Campbell Mary Barr 💍 1898/3802	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Upholsteress	26 21	Wellington Lower Hutt	26 years 17 years	Knox Church, Lower Hutt	98/3027		3 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Baumber
302	4 August 1898	Duncan George McDougall Catherine Hannah Tremewan	Duncan George McDougall Catherine Maria May Tremewan 💍 1898/2489	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	28 23	Wellington Wellington	28 years 18 years	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/3008		4 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Baumber
303	4 August 1898	George Alfred Garbes Annie Maple Hards	George Alfred Garbes Annie Maple Ward 💍 1898/2491	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	22 20	Wellington Wellington	22 years 20 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/3009	Father, George Hards	4 August 1898	Registrar
304	4 August 1898	Henry North Mary Theresa Egan	Henry North Mary Theresa Egan 💍 1898/2490	Bachelor Spinster	General Importer	29 27	Wellington Wellington	29 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/2991		4 August 1898	Registrar
305	6 August 1898	James Joseph Kennedy Anastasia Phoulfe	James Joseph Kennedy Anatasia Woulfe 💍 1898/2506	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 22	Ashburton Ashburton	5 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church, Feilding	98/3721		6 August 1898	Rev. J. B. Pattisons
306	8 August 1898	Walter McLay Amy Gamble	Walter McLay Amy Gamble 💍 1898/4282	Bachelor Spinster	Analytical Chemist	23 26	Wellington Wellington	12 years 26 years	Home of John Gamble, Molesworth Street, Wellington	98/3658		8 August 1898	Rev. A. C. Lawry

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).