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 625

District of Napier 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
106	10 December 1898	David Loader Mary Mather	David Loader Mary Mather 💍 1898/4535	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	32 31	Napier Spit	2 months 4 days	Residence of Mr. Poynton, Nagham St, Spit	98/4109		10 December 1898	Rev. C. Comer, Presbyterian
107	10 December 1898	Henry Hayhow Amanda Pitersin	Henry Hayhow Amanda Petersen 💍 1898/4515	Bachelor Spinster	Stationhand Housemaid	25 23	Crissoge Crissoge	4 years 11 months	Church of England, Varadale	98/4113		10 December 1898	Rev. T. P. Clarke, Church of England
108	14 December 1898	Hy. Alfred Wilson Eliza Jane Juniso	Henry Alfred Wilson Eliza Jane Jukes 💍 1898/3291	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	24 22	Hastings Napier	2 years 3 days	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier	98/4100		14 December 1898	Registrar S. Page
109	15 December 1898	Patrick Hayden Annie Anderson	Patrick Hayden Annie Andersen 💍 1898/3293	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	21 23	Napier Napier	2 months 3 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Napier	98/4102		15 December 1898	Registrar S. Page
110	15 December 1898	William Stanley Catherine Ann McCallum	William Stanley Catherine Ann McCallum 💍 1898/4536	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	34 18	Spit Spit	3 years 3 years	Residence of Bride's Father, Church St, Spit	98/4110	William McCallum, Father	15 December 1898	Rev. C. Comer, Presbyterian
111	16 December 1898	John Hy. Hargrove Edith Rashleigh Hiale	John Henry Norgrove Edith Rashleigh Neale 💍 1898/4992	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	20 23	Spit Napier	4 years 3 years	Cathedral, Napier	98/5056	Henry Hargrove, Father	16 December 1898	Dean Hovell, Church of England
112	22 December 1898	Peter Macfarlane Clara Hilda Gordon	Peter MacFarlane Clara Hilda Gordon 💍 1899/1115	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	30 23	Napier Napier	6 years 4 years	Cathedral, Napier	99/1150		22 December 1898	Dean Hovell, Church of England
113	22 December 1898	Thomas Earl Lindsay Cecilia Mary Lee Ryan		Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	29 23	Napier Auckland	29 years 3 months	Presbyterian Manse, Auckland			22 December 1898	Rev. Jas. Milne, Presbyterian
114	22 December 1898	Thomas Albert Higham Mary Matys	Thomas Albert Higham Mary Platzs 💍 1898/4993	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	28 27	Napier Napier	24 years 5 years	Cathedral, Napier	98/5057		22 December 1898	Dean Hovell, Church of England

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).