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 480

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
626	14 November 1898	Charles Robert Laver Lily Mary Ward	Charles Robert Laver Lily Mary Ward 💍 1898/4457	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 23	Waitekawri Auckland	9 months 9 years	House of Mr. Chas. Brown, Parnell	98/4025		14 November 1898	Rev. H. Kelly, Presbyterian
627	14 November 1898	Edward John Keatley Edith Evelyn Austin	Edward John Keatley Edith Evelyn Austin 💍 1898/4460	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	23 19	Auckland Auckland	17 years 5 years	St. Matthew's Church, Auckland	98/4027	Ida Macrae, Sister	14 November 1898	Rev. L. Fitz Gerald, Church of England
628	14 November 1898	William Strugnell Susan Elizabeth Clarke	William Strugnall Susan Elizabeth Clarke 💍 1898/2548	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Machinist	32 23	Kamo Auckland	26 years 23 years	House of Mrs. R. Poulter, Eden Terrace	98/3864		14 November 1898	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
629	15 November 1898	James Porter Isabella Littan Lemany	James Porter Isabella McLennan 💍 1898/2538	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 34	Wairoa South Wairoa South	2 years 5 years	House of Mr. A. Douglas, Otahuhu	98/3878		15 November 1898	Rev. John Macdonald, Presbyterian
630	15 November 1898	Arthur Bellamy Charlotte Harrison	Arthur Bellamy Charlotte Harrison 💍 1898/3214	Bachelor Spinster	Station manager	22 17	Lichfield Lichfield	6 years 6 years	St. Mark's Church, Remuera	98/3837	Mark Harrison, father	15 November 1898	Rev. W. Beatty, Church of England
631	16 November 1898	Innes Loares Dora Edgecumbe	Innes Soon Dora Edgecumbe 💍 1898/2540	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	25 18	Auckland Auckland	25 years 18 years	House of Mr. J. Williams, Karangahape Road	98/3862	Joseph Whitworth, foster father and guardian	16 November 1898	Rev. W. S. Williams, Wesleyan
632	16 November 1898	John Trevor Gordon Clara Clifton Firth	John Trevor Gordon Clara Clifton Firth 💍 1898/5138	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	28 26	Cambridge Auckland	2 years 26 years	St. Barnabas' Church, Mount Eden	98/4924		16 November 1898	Rev. W. H. Johnston, Church of England
633	16 November 1898	Henry Barton Eleanor Mary Robertson	Henry Basten Eleanor Mary Robertson 💍 1898/5133	Bachelor Spinster	Boatbuilder School teacher	37 24	Auckland Auckland	32 years 24 years	House of Mother of Bride, Mount Eden	98/4919		16 November 1898	Rev. J. J. Robertson, Presbyterian

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).