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 287

District of Ashburton 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
1063	23 July 1898	Samuel Crighton Annie Augusta Molloy	Samuel Criglington Annie Augusta Woolley 💍 1898/4209	Bachelor Spinster	Permanent Artillery	29 23	Ashburton Hinds	3 days 7 years	Schoolroom at Lismore	98/3316		23 July 1898	Revd. Harold Purchas
1064	15 August 1898	James Hislop Barbara Berg	James Hislop Barbara Berg 💍 1898/3127	Bachelor Spinster	Station Master	29 22	Tinwald Ashburton	1/2 years 12 years	Private Dwelling of Mr. Scott Berg at Ashburton	98/3150		15 August 1898	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
1065	17 August 1898	Arthur George Williams Betty Grie	Arthur George Williams Betsy Grice 💍 1898/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 24	Tinwald Millowby	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	Private Dwelling of George Grie at Millowby	98/3152		19 August 1898	Revd. Joseph F. Mather
1066	23 August 1898	George William Nation Cicely Mabel Hurst		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 23	Greenstreet Greenstreet	12 years 8 years	St. Stephen's at Ashburton	98/3153		23 August 1898	Revd. Thos. A. Hamilton
1067	29 August 1898	Herbert Aplim Flower Agnes Taylor Millar	Herbert Aplin Flower Agnes Taylor Millar 💍 1898/3128	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	25 26	Ashburton Beach Road, Wakanui	5 years 26 years	Private Dwelling of Malcolm Millar, Beach Road, Wakanui	98/3157		29 August 1898	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
1068	26 September 1898	John Mather Ellen Rehave Eden		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 19	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 18 years	Baptist Tabernacle, Ashburton	98/3155	Nelson Eden, Father	26 September 1898	Revd. Albert Ager
1069	17 September 1898	George Pritchard Mary Augusta Stock	George Pritchard Mary Augusta Stock 💍 1898/3108	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Ashburton Ashburton	14 years 23 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	98/3154		17 September 1898	Revd. T. A. Hamilton
1070	20 September 1898	Harry Bone Hardby Mary Jane Button	Harry Sims Hardley Mary Jane Sutton 💍 1898/5085	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 23	Hampstead Tinwhare	9 years 8 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Ashburton	98/5001		20 September 1898	Revd. Geo. H. Mann

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).