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 339

District of Taranaki 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
17	12 July 1898	James Duncan Sarah Ann Williams	James Duncan Sarah Ann Williams 💍 1898/4210	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	33 20	Temuka Temuka	3 years 20 years	Private Residence of Thos. Ban [illegible]	98/3317	Richard Williams, Father	12 July 1898	Henry Williams
18	12 July 1898	Wm. Digby Gerald Bridget Boughlan		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 22	Temuka Temuka	3 days 20 years	Roman Catholic Church Temuka	98/3683		12 July 1898	Peter A. Galvin
19	8 August 1898	John Doratto Eliza Palmer	John South Elizabeth Palmer 💍 1898/4986	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 25	Manchester Temuka	19 years 25 years	Private Residence of Faire Palmer, Kakahu, Temuka	98/5073		8 August 1898	Thomas Darley
20	24 August 1898	John Collins Caroline Nixon	John Collins Caroline Norton 💍 1898/3936 John Orr Collins Elizabeth Caroline Wilson 💍 1898/1240	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 27	Temuka Temuka	7 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	98/3318		24 August 1898	William Tinsley
21	15 September 1898	Richard Moore Frances Ardell	Richard Hoare Francess Ardell 💍 1898/3947	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 19	Waihihi Flat Temuka	15 years 19 years	Private Residence of John Ardell, Main Road	98/3319	John Ardell, Father	15 September 1898	Wm. Tinsley
22	22 September 1898	Harry Wakeby Isabella Cruickshank	Harry Wakely Isabella Cruickshank 💍 1898/3954	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Classer	26 22	Temuka Temuka	20 years 20 years	Private Residence of Thos. Cruickshank, Main Road	98/3320		22 September 1898	Wm. Tinsley
23	28 September 1898	Thos. John Chapman Miriam Elizabeth Fishman	Charles John Chapman Miriam Eleanor Smith Leishman 💍 1898/4157	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	36 29	Temuka Temuka	25 years 4 days	Presbyterian Church	98/3681		28 September 1898	John Dickson
24	28 September 1898	David Taylor Stewart Edith Grace Bates	David Taylor Stewart Edith Grace Bates 💍 1898/3452	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 20	Orari Geraldine	25 years 20 years	Presbyterian Church Geraldine	98/4586	Thomas Bates, Father	28 September 1898	A. Bruce Todd

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).