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 446

District of Tokomairiro Quarter ending 30 September 1890

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
801	6 July 1890	William Wilson Margaret Moore	William Rainbow Mary Elizabeth Moore 💍 1898/1040	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home Duties	26 29	Milton Milton	2 years 2 years	Residence of Mr. Anderson, Milton	98/3604	Mare Hare	6 July 1890	Rev. Jas. Chisholm
802	10 July 1890	Thomas Hughan Christina Jane Chapman	Thomas Hughan Christina Jessie Chapman 💍 1898/4098	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner Home Duties	20 20	Clarendon Clarendon	3 days 3 days	Church, Clarendon	98/3502	Mother	10 July 1890	Rev. Jas. Somerville
803	20 July 1890	John Duncan Isabella Smith	John Sinclair Isabella Smith 💍 1898/4076 John Cawley Annabella Smith 💍 1898/3499	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home Duties	30 27	Waihola Waihola	15 years 15 years	Residence of Mr. Smith, Waihola	98/3503		20 July 1890	Rev. Jas. Somerville
804	7 September 1890	William Moore Eliza Sanders	William Moore Eliza Sanders 💍 1898/4131	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Home Duties	31 27	Glenore Glenore	3 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Glenore	98/3605		7 September 1890	Rev. Jas. Chisholm
805	13 September 1898	James Wilson McMurtrie Sarah Fahey	James Wilson McMurtrie Sarah Fahey 💍 1898/2512	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Home Duties	24 20	Milton Milton	24 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Milton	98/3727	Sabrina Fahey, Mother	13 September 1898	Rev. Jas. O'Neill
806	20 September 1890	Richard James Michie Helen Clark Telloch	Richard Harvey Michelle Helen Clark Tulloch 💍 1898/2815	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Home Duties	25 26	Glenore Glenore	4 years 4 years	Residence of Bride's Father, Glenore	98/3606	Father	20 September 1890	Rev. Jas. Chisholm
807	28 September 1890	Alexander Edward Stewart Annie Grace Reid	Alexander Edward Stewart Annie Christie Reid 💍 1898/4077	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Home Duties	31 23	Milton Milton	18 years 18 years	Residence of Bride's Father, Milton	98/3504		28 September 1890	Rev. Jas. Reid

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).