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 231

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
357	21 September 1898	Albert Tasker Emmeline Deviney	Albert Tasker Emma May Swinly 💍 1898/4156	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	20 21	Wellington Wellington	12 years 21 years	Trinity Church, Wellington	98/3662		21 September 1898	Rev. A. C. Lawry
358	22 September 1898	James Reston Mary Jane Bradshaw	James Reston Mary Jane Bradshaw 💍 1898/2995	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	24 21	Paraparaumu Taita, Lake of Petone	18 months 3 weeks	House of Charles Bradshaw, Taita	98/3062		22 September 1898	Rev. Andrew Gray
359	22 September 1898	Robert Burton Ellen Josephine Ingrid Lawson	Robert Burton Ellen Josephine Malinquist Lawson 💍 1898/2483	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	26 21	Wellington Wellington	20 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/3002		22 September 1898	Registrar
360	22 September 1898	Noel Percy Bismark Retter Harriet Laura Jane Bentley	Carl Percy Bismark Retter Harriett Louisa Jane Bentley 💍 1898/2484	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville	13 years 9 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/3003	Frederick Bentley, father	22 September 1898	Registrar
361	23 September 1898	William George Hutton Mary Hayes	William George Hutton Mary Hayes 💍 1898/2987	Widower Widow	Labourer	43 46	Wellington Wellington	12 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Church, Buckle Street, Wellington	98/3055		23 September 1898	Rev. Tho. Devoy
362	24 September 1898	William Joseph Keegan Susan Short	William Joseph Keegan Susan Short 💍 1898/3817	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 19	Wellington Wellington	18 years 19 years	House of George Short, 57 Sydney Street, Wellington	98/3020	George Short, father	24 September 1898	Rev. Thos. Wallaston
363	26 September 1898	Arthur Buckmaster Theresa Ada Green	Arthur Buckmaster Theresa Ada Green 💍 1898/2496	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 25	Wellington Wellington	18 months 12 years	House of Mrs. Buckmaster, 19 Garrett Street, Wellington	98/3014		26 September 1898	Rev. Wm. Barumber
364	27 September 1898	John William Law Caroline Temperance Voice	John William Law Pauline Temperance Price 💍 1898/3994	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	31 27	Wellington Wellington	13 years 6 years	House of J. W. Law, 11 Belfast Street, Wellington	98/3536		27 September 1898	Rev. Jas. Paterson
365	27 September 1898	William Ernest Johnston Holdship Emily Felicia Dean	William Ernest Johnston Holdship Emily Felecia Dean 💍 1898/5070	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 25	Lithgow, New South Wales Wellington	8 months 12 years	House of Rev. J. H. Dean, Featherston Terrace, Wellington	98/4976		27 September 1898	Rev. C. S. Ogg

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).