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 490

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
702	19 December 1898	Bartholemow Taylor Russell Gertrude Anne Dowell	Bartholomew Taylor Russell Gertrude Anne Dowell 💍 1898/3221	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	39 27	Auckland Auckland	4 days 6 years	St Mark's Church, Remuera	98/3838	19 December 1898	Rev. W. Bealty, Church of England
703	19 December 1898	John Ness Margaret Smith	John Ness Margaret Smith 💍 1898/4181 John Mackay Margaret Smith 💍 1898/994 John Julian Allpress Margaret Smith 💍 1898/3440 John Jenkins Janet Smith 💍 1899/1231 Fred Ellis Margaret Smith 💍 1898/1710	Bachelor Widow	Carter	22 29	Auckland Auckland	22 years 20 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3780	19 December 1898	L. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
704	19 December 1898	Alfred James Coleman Sarah Cameron	Alfred James Coleman Sarah Cameron 💍 1898/4977	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Sailoress	27 21	Auckland Auckland	27 years 21 years	St Paul's Church, Auckland	98/5065	19 December 1898	Rev. C. M. Nelson, Church of England
705	19 December 1898	Charles Edwin Henry Collins Martha Jane McBurney	Charles Edwin Henry Collins Martha Jane McBurney 💍 1898/4182	Bachelor Spinster	Barman Laundress	24 22	Auckland Auckland	14 months 10 months	Registrar's Office, Auckland	98/3781	19 December 1898	L. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
706	20 December 1898	Charles Thomas Gavan Mary Jane Emma Cann	Charles Thomas Gavan Mary Jane Emma Cann 💍 1898/4301	Bachelor Spinster	Bodymaker	23 31	Auckland Auckland	16 years 12 years	House of Mr. P.J. Annan, Arch Hill	98/3832	20 December 1898	Rev. E. Best, Wesleyan
707	20 December 1898	Samuel Wood Edith Olney	Samuel Wood Edith Olney 💍 1899/143	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 28	Auckland Auckland	33 years 6 years	St Jude's Church, Avondale	99/93	20 December 1898	Rev. F. Larkins, Church of England
708	20 December 1898	Francis Joseph Povey Mary Elizabeth Povey Gullin	Francis Joseph Povey Mary Elizabeth Pullin 💍 1898/4305	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Nurse	35 28	Auckland Auckland	4 years 6 years	House of Bride, "Puriri," Grafton Road	98/3813	20 December 1898	Rev. J. Parker, Congregational Independent

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).