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 470

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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
551	7 October 1898	Frederick Howard Clarke Mary Ann Clarke	Frederick Howard Mary Ann Clarke 💍 1898/3179	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	22 18	Auckland Auckland	20 years 5 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3745	John Clarke, father	7 October 1898	J. Culfpan, Deputy Registrar
552	8 October 1898	Robert Clark Mary Rowlands	Robert Clark Mary Rowlands 💍 1898/4916	Widower Widow	Master Mariner	40 35	Onehunga Waipu	55 years 35 years	Parsonage, Onehunga	98/4889		8 October 1898	Rev. S. Lawry, Wesleyan
553	10 October 1898	Michael Joseph Rearden Emily Elizabeth Ann Favell	Michael Joseph Reardon Emily Elizabeth Ann Powell 💍 1898/5132	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Dressmaker	22 21	Auckland Auckland	22 years 11 years	House of Rev. R. Scott West, Mount Eden	98/4918		10 October 1898	Rev. P. Scott West, Presbyterian
554	10 October 1898	Claude Philip Guym Purchas Beatrice Gordon Eliott	Claude Phillip Guyon Purchas Beatrice Gordon Eliott 💍 1898/4990	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	37 27	Waitekauri Auckland	3 years 27 years	Church of England, Ellerslie	98/5077		10 October 1898	Rev. W. E. Gillam, Church of England
555	11 October 1898	Frank Brown Emma Catherine Harrison	Frank Brown Emma Catherine Harrison 💍 1898/3219	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	22 17	Aratapu Aratapu	4 years 17 years	House of Mr. Jas. Reid, Upper Union Street, Auckland	98/3859	John Harrison, father	11 October 1898	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
556	11 October 1898	William Thomas Queenin Emily Davoren	William Thomas Queenin Emily Davoren 💍 1898/3180	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	34 31	Auckland Auckland	8 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3746		11 October 1898	J. Culfpan, Deputy Registrar
557	11 October 1898	Joseph William James Preston Caroline Eliza Nixon	Joseph William James Preston Caroline Eliza Nixon 💍 1898/2536	Bachelor Spinster	Shipping Clerk	25 25	Auckland Cambridge	25 years 1 week	House of Mr. J. Nixon (father of bride), Cambridge	98/3876	J. Nixon, father of bride	11 October 1898	Rev. W. Cannell, Wesleyan
558	13 October 1898	Henry Scotland Margaret Venning	Henry Scotland Margaret Venning 💍 1898/3181	Widower Spinster	Barrister-at-Law	77 52	Pahi, Kaipara Pahi, Kaipara	10 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3747		13 October 1898	J. Culfpan, Deputy Registrar

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).