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 462

District of Wyndham 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
14	18 July 1898	William Brash Ellen Richardson	William Brash Ellen Richardson 💍 1898/4087	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	24 23	South Wyndham South Wyndham	1 Year 1 Year	House	98/3574	Brides Mother	19 July 1898	Rev. J. Johnson
15	8 August 1898	John Hamilton Reid Annie M. Doull	John Hamilton Reid Taylor Annie Magdalene Doull 💍 1898/3331	Bachelor Spinster	Cheesemaker Domestic	30 16	Otara Wyndham	10 Years 10 Years	Bride Residence Wyndham	98/3699	Bride Mother Residence Otara	8 August 1898	Rev. J. B. Smellie
16	17 August 1898	James Smellie Ellen Jane Stevenson	James Smellie Ellen Jane Stevenson 💍 1898/3332	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	30 28	Glenham Edendale	10 Years 15 Years	Edendale	98/3700		17 August 1898	Rev. J. B. Smellie
17	12 August 1898	James Cook Clark Annie Gaman	James Cook Clark Annie Gorman 💍 1898/3330	Bachelor Spinster	Cheesemaker Domestic	24 23	Mataura Island Mataura Island	4 Years 4 Years	Bride Residence Mataura Island	98/3698		22 August 1898	Walter O'Donnell
18	25 August 1898	John McRoy Maria E. Heath	John McKay Maria Elizabeth Heath 💍 1898/4088	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	21 21	Mataura Island Mataura Island	6 Years 6 Years	House of Father	98/3575		25 August 1898	Rev. J. Johnston
19	16 September 1898	George Dempster Annie Taylor	George Dempster Annie Taylor 💍 1898/3333 George Strange Anna Taylor 💍 1898/1597	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic	21 21	Edendale Edendale	18 Years 12 Years	House of Mr. John Dempster	98/3701		16 September 1898	Rev. J. B. Smellie
20	17 September 1898	John Dempster Delena Campbell	John Dempster Delena Campbell 💍 1898/3334	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic	21 19	Edendale Wyndham	17 Years 5 Years	House of the Bride's Mother	98/3702	Barbara Campbell, Mother of the Bride	17 September 1898	Rev. J. B. Smellie

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).