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 226

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
317	17 August 1898	Sidney Backer Cross Emilia May Alderslade	Sidney Walter Cross Emilie May Alderslade 💍 1898/4135	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	27 20	Wellington Wellington	14 years 1 year	Home of Revd. E. Dodwell, Daniel St., Wellington	98/3589	No person in Colony with authority to give consent	31 August 1898	Rev. E. Dodwell
318	20 August 1898	Charles Frederick Priest Mary King Anderson Walker	Charles Frederick Priest Mary King Anderson Walker 💍 1898/3820	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	26 22	Petone Petone	11 years 9 years	St. David's Church, Petone	98/3023		20 August 1898	Rev. Alex Thomson
319	22 August 1898	William John McLean Tate Anna Mary Harrison	William John Maclean Tate Anna Mary Harrison 💍 1898/3804	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	36 36	Wellington Wellington	9 months 9 months	House of Mrs. Harrison, Edinburgh Terrace, Wellington	98/3024		22 August 1898	Rev. W. Shiner
320	22 August 1898	William Edward Vernon Chapman Elizabeth Ellen Vennell	William Edward Emerson Chapman Elizabeth Ellen Vennell 💍 1898/4279	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	32 22	Napier Gladstone, Wairarapa	32 22	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	98/3655		22 August 1898	Rev. A. M. Johnson
321	24 August 1898	Christian Peter Berg Alice Lillian Stidolph	Christian Peter Berg Alice Ellen Lillian Stidolph 💍 1898/2989	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Dressmaker	38 21	Wellington Wellington	8 years 21 years	House of L. Stidolph, Lambton Quay, Wellington	98/3037		24 August 1898	Rev. J. R. Glasson
322	24 August 1898	William Knott Fawcett Mary Louise Beadnell	William Knott Fawcett Mary Louise Beadnall 💍 1898/2493	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	39 26	Wellington Wellington	17 years 12 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki St., Wellington	98/3011		24 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Baumber
323	25 August 1898	Edmund Henry Stevenson Levinia Gray	Edmund Henry Stevenson Levinia Gray 💍 1898/2494	Bachelor Widow	Baker	30 27	Manaia Greymouth	8 years 27 years	House of J. J. Ritson, 14 Taranaki St., Wellington	98/3012		25 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Baumber
324	26 August 1898	Thomas Letcheon Ruth Burns	Thomas Hitchcox Ruth Burn 💍 1898/3805	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Wellington Wellington	15 months 5 years	House of R. S. Burns, Berhampore, Wellington	98/3030		26 August 1898	Rev. Wm. Shiner
325	29 August 1898	William George Judd Effie Bowler	William George Judd Effie Bowler 💍 1898/2762	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Hult Makara	27 years 21 years	Church of England, Makara	98/3015		29 August 1898	Rev. S. H. Cameron
326	29 August 1898	Alexander Simpson Isabella Olive Learner	Alexander Simpson Isabella Olivia Carnew 💍 1898/2499 Alexander Simpson Lily Violet Jones 💍 1899/1353	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	35 24	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/2994		29 August 1898	Registrar

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).