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 588

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 31 December 1898 Registrar Charles Edmund Nicholas

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
31	20 October 1898	Chris Edwin Arnold Salmon Mary Ann Field	Chris Edwin Arnold Salmon Mary Anne Field 💍 1898/4466	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	35 28	Mangapai Whangarei	6 years 1 year	At residence E T Field, Wangarei	98/4009		20 October 1898	Rev. J. H. Hawkes M.A.
32	27 October 1898	Daniel Lawrence Jackson Isabella Trotter	Daniel Lawrence Jackson Isabella Trotter 💍 1898/5129	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 18	Hikurangi Hikurangi	4 years 3 years	residence Bridegrooms parents, Hikurangi	98/4940	John Trotter, Father	27 October 1898	Rev. B. F. Rothwell
33	9 December 1898	George William Peters Mabel Ellen Brothers	George William Peters Mabel Ellen Brothers 💍 1898/4465	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand	21 20	Whakapara Whananaki	4 months 9 years	residence Brides parents, Whananaki	98/4008	Edward Wrights Brothers, Father	9 December 1898	Rev. J. H. Hawkes M.A.
34	10 December 1898	Robert Hamilton Ellen Christie	Robert Hamilton Ellen Christie 💍 1898/5130	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 21	Hikurangi Hikurangi	3 years 11 years	residence Brides parents, Hikurangi	98/4941		10 December 1898	Rev. B. F. Rothwell
35	19 December 1898	Alfred Ernest Edward Young Rosina Beatrice Adams	Albert Amos Edward Young Rosina Beatrice Adams 💍 1898/4467	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	Otonga Otonga	17 years 4 years	Christchurch, Whangarei	98/4010	James Jonathan Adams, Father	19 December 1898	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
36	22 December 1898	Robert Howard Osborne Margaret Jane Brown	Robert Howard Osborne Margaret Jane Brown 💍 1898/4458	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Puhipuhi Whakapara	3 months 4 days	Office Registrar, Whangarei	98/4007	Robert H. Brown, Father	22 December 1898	The Registrar
37	28 December 1898	Geurt Thomasson Lillian Gertrude Jessie Dalton	Geurt Thomasson Lillian Gertrude Jessie Dalton 💍 1898/4468	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 23	Maungatapere Maungatapere	10 years 4 months	residence Bridegrooms parents, Maungatapere	98/4011	Ann Thomasson, Mother	28 December 1898	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
38	28 December 1898	William Bramley Ellen Hiroy Land	William Bramley Ellen Harvey Land 💍 1899/275	Widower Widow	Farmer	76 71	Kaeo Maunu	39 years 10 years	At residence C. W. Hardwick, Maunu	99/283		28 December 1898	Rev. J. H. Hawkes

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).