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 662

District of Feilding 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
548	8 October 1898	Joseph Belloe Elenor Burnips	Joseph Belloe Elenor Burnip 💍 1898/4774	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	22 25	Feilding Feilding	18 years 3 years	Church of England, Feilding	98/4147		8 October 1898	A. S. James Jones
549	4 November 1898	Norbert Moore Louisa Maud Wildbore	Herbert Moore Louisa Maud Wildbore 💍 1898/4777	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 18	Taonui Taonui	2 weeks 18 years	At the residence of the Bride's father, Taonui	98/4150	Charles Henry Wildbore, father	4 November 1898	J. W. Hayward
550	8 November 1898	John Palmer Lucy Walkom	John Palmer Lucy Hallam 💍 1898/2847	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	22 27	Feilding Feilding	3 days 3 days	Salvation Army Barracks, Feilding	98/4151		8 November 1898	J. W. Hayward
551	15 November 1898	John Hart Lyon Rose Jane Miles	John Holt Lyon Ann Jane Mills 💍 1898/2848	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	26 24	Feilding Cheltenham	3 days 14 years	At the residence of the Bride's father, Cheltenham	98/4152		15 November 1898	J. W. Hayward
552	21 November 1898	James Anderson Janet Marie Potier	John Anderson Janet Marie Potier 💍 1898/4773	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	25 23	Feilding Feilding	5 days 2 months	Wesleyan Church, Feilding	98/4146		21 November 1898	E. Abernethy
553	25 November 1898	Robert McClymont Edith Elsie Manfham	Robert McClymont Edith Alice Maugham 💍 1898/4438	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Feilding Feilding	4 days 4 days	Registrar's Office, Feilding	98/4154	Arthur Manfham, father	25 November 1898	J. F. Martin
554	2 December 1898	John Louis Procher Margaret Evelyn Drysdale	John Louis Procter Margaret Eversleigh Robertson 💍 1898/4776	Bachelor Widow	Horse Trainer	33 35	Feilding Feilding	1 week 10 days	At the residence of Robert Haswell, Kimbolton Road, Feilding	98/4149		2 December 1898	Chas Murray
555	5 December 1898	John Andrew Taylor Amy Esther Baker	John Andrew Taylor Amy Ester Baker 💍 1898/2849	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 20	Martins Martins	18 years 18 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Feilding	98/4153	William Baker, father	5 December 1898	J. W. Hayward
556	13 December 1898	Daniel Rees Davies Mary Catherine Dougall	Daniel Rees Davies Mary Catherine McDougall 💍 1898/4440	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	23 21	Cunninghams Wactina West	16 years 13 years	Registrar's Office, Feilding	98/4155		13 December 1898	J. F. Martin

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).