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 273

District of Hokitika 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
25	5 July 1898	Herbert Stanley Meredith Anna Fieldman Barker	Herbert Stanley Meredith Anne Fieldman Harker 💍 1898/2764	Bachelor Spinster	Patternmaker Domestic	27 24	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Hokitika	98/3139	5 July 1898	Rev. H. Douglas
26	25 July 1898	George Taylor Martha Merewether	George Taylor Martha Merewether 💍 1898/3005	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic	25 21	Stafford Stafford	2 years 21 years	Residence of George Taylor Senr, Stafford	98/3140	25 July 1898	Rev. Robt. Stewart
27	13 August 1898	Robert Greenlee Mary Ann Sarah Jones	Robert Greenlees Mary Ann Sarah Jones 💍 1898/3006	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	46 30	Blue Spur Arahura	2 years 28 years	Wesleyan Church, Hokitika	98/3141	13 August 1898	Rev. B. E. Finger
28	16 August 1898	James Daniel Lynch Lily Winifred Gribben	James Daniel Lynch Lily Winifred Gribben 💍 1898/3995	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent Domestic	30 23	Hokitika Hokitika	5 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	98/3537	16 August 1898	Rev. J. C. Martin
29	16 September 1898	Joseph Lynch Grace Applegard	Joseph Lynch Grace Appleyard 💍 1898/3009	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	43 28	Jackson's Jackson's	1 year 6 years	Residence of Mr. Alpine, Jackson's	98/3144	16 September 1898	Rev. Job Penning
30	16 September 1898	Henry Cromby Staines Isabella Cunningham	Henry Bromby Stains Isabella Cunningham 💍 1898/3007	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 23	Kanieri Taipo	3 days 23 years	Dwelling of Isabella Cunningham, Taipo	98/3142	16 September 1898	Rev. H. Douglas
31	21 September 1898	Alfred Michael Henry Keller Isabella Mary Mitchell	Alfred Michael Henry Keller Isabella Mary Mitchell 💍 1898/3008	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic	30 23	Hokitika Hokitika	30 years 5 years	Anglican Church, Hokitika	98/3143	21 September 1898	Rev. Staples Hamilton

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).