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 291

District of Christchurch 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
312	18 July 1898	Martin Joseph Browne Bridget Beatrice Burke	Martin Joseph Browne Bridget Beatrice Burke 💍 1898/3854	Bachelor Spinster	Cigaret Maker	34 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes St.	98/3183	18 July 1898	Rev. W. des Cleeves, Roman Catholic
313	18 July 1898	James Soll Lillian Harper	James Joll Lillian Harper 💍 1898/3902 James Hollis Annie Harper 💍 1898/313	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	30 24	Sydenham Opawa	30 years 24 years	House of Mr. J. Harper, Sydenham	98/3217	18 July 1898	Rev. H. Ball, Wesleyan
314	19 July 1898	Isaac Hudson Frances Henrietta Stokes	Isaac Judson Frances Henrietta Stokes 💍 1898/3899	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	House of Mr. James Stokes, Colombo St.	98/3214	19 July 1898	Rev. J. McLeod, Wesleyan
315	19 July 1898	Charles Hedley Vickers Marian Emily Hart	Charles Hedley Vickers Marion Emily Hart 💍 1898/3037	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 26	New Plymouth Christchurch	3 years 26 years	St. Michaels Church, New Plymouth	98/3230	19 July 1898	Rev. A.W. Averill, Anglican
316	20 July 1898	George Lee Eliza Mary Wright	George Tree Edith Mary Wright 💍 1898/2766	Bachelor Spinster	Woolscourer Dressmaker	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 15 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Chester Street	98/3259	20 July 1898	Rev. T.H. Dyson, Primitive Methodist
317	20 July 1898	Charles Edward Wootton May McKinnon	Charles Edward Wootton Mary Steven McKerrow 💍 1898/4151	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	26 21	Christchurch Dunedin	2 months 21 years	Wesleyan Church, Durham St.	98/3676	20 July 1898	Rev. J.N. Newbold, Wesleyan
318	20 July 1898	Albert Henry Luoss Esther Owen	Albert Henry Snook Esther Owen 💍 1898/4026	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturer	24 23	Linwood Linwood	10 years 9 years	Church of the Good Shepherd	98/3253	20 July 1898	Rev. H.J.C. Elwell, Anglican
319	20 July 1898	John Thomas Forward Emily Cookson	John Thomas Hill Forward Emily Cookson 💍 1898/3113	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	32 31	St. Albans Christchurch	4 years 3 years	Registrar's Office	98/3159	20 July 1898	Registrar of Marriages

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).