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 482

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
641	22 November 1898	Frederick Johnson Caroline Johnson	Frederick Johnson Caroline Johnson 💍 1898/2549	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Omaha Auckland	1 year 21 years	House of Mr. G. Johnson, Nelson Street, Auckland	98/3865	22 November 1898	Rev. W. J. Williams, Wesleyan
642	23 November 1898	Richard Lenehan Sarah Mason	Richard Lenehan Sarah Mason 💍 1898/4189	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 23	Auckland Auckland	27 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3765	23 November 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
643	23 November 1898	John Nicholson Elizabeth Grant	John Nicholson Elizabeth Grant 💍 1898/4190	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	35 22	Mercury Bay Auckland	20 years 22 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3766	23 November 1898	J. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
644	25 November 1898	George Hubert Lester Annie Kennedy	George Herbert Lester Annie Kennedy 💍 1898/4455	Bachelor Spinster	Fancy Goods dealer	36 24	Auckland Auckland	30 years 24 years	St. James Presbyterian Manse, Wellington St.	98/4023	25 November 1898	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
645	25 November 1898	Stephen David Myers Sybil Maud Nathan	Stephen David Myers Sybil Maud Nathan 💍 1898/2550	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	24 21	London Auckland	1 month 21 years	Jewish Synagogue, Auckland	98/3866	25 November 1898	Rev. S. A. Goldstein, Hebrew
646	25 November 1898	George Robert Toms Linda Annie Harradine	George Robert Toms Linda Annie Harradine 💍 1898/4191	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance agent	23 21	Otahuhu Otahuhu	23 years 4 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3767	25 November 1898	S. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
647	28 November 1898	Joseph James Patteson Sheriff Mary Jane Lisk	Joseph James Patteson Sheriff Mary Jane Lisk 💍 1898/4294	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 24	Takapuna Takapuna	32 years 2 years	House of Mr. J. Collins, Takapuna	98/3825	28 November 1898	Rev. C. C. Beecroft, Wesleyan
648	28 November 1898	Frederick Goodsel Payne Nora Rountree	Frederick Goodsel Payne Nora Rountree 💍 1898/4461	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 21	Auckland Auckland	1 year 1 1/2 years	House of Mr. J. Murphy, Willow St, Auckland	98/4028	28 November 1898	Rev. W. A. Sinclair, Wesleyan

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).