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 704

District of Wellington 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
386	21 October 1898	William Thomson Johnston Marian Price	William Thomson Johnston Marian Price 💍 1898/4785	Bachelor Divorced (decree made absolute 3 February 1888)	Labourer	30 36	Wellington Wellington	4 years 6 months 20 years	Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/4273		25 October 1898	Rev. J. R. Elliott
387	22 October 1898	John Hughes Mary Ann Douglas	John Hughes Mary Ann Douglas 💍 1898/3320 Edward Charles Holmes Mary Ann Douglas 💍 1898/865	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	36 32	Wellington Wellington	36 years 32 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/4257		22 October 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
388	22 October 1898	Ernest Tweed Barthorp Ellen May Mowbray	Ernest Tweed Barthorp Ellen May Mowbray 💍 1898/4565	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 26	Pahiatua Lower Hutt	6 months 10 years	St. James Church, Lower Hutt	98/4335		22 October 1898	Rev. Joshua Jones
389	24 October 1898	John Fitzgerald Katherine Horgan	John Fitzgerald Catherine Horgan 💍 1898/4583	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	30 21	Lower Hutt Wellington	6 months 4 years	St. Mary's of the Angels Church, Wellington	98/4329		24 October 1898	Rev. Thos. Delany
390	25 October 1898	George Parker Burns Lucy Jane Campbell	George Parkes Burns Lucy Annie Campbell 💍 1898/4789	Bachelor Spinster	Laundyman	27 27	Wellington Wellington	5 years 13 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	98/4286		25 October 1898	Rev. Jas. Paterson
391	25 October 1898	Francis Julius Emily May Morgan	Francis Juluis Emily May Morgan 💍 1898/4566	Bachelor Spinster	Carder	27 19	Johnsonville Johnsonville	1 year 7 years	Residence of Mrs. Johnson, Johnsonville	98/4338	Catherine Morgan, Mother	25 October 1898	Rev. Thos. J. Jones
392	26 October 1898	James Chapman Clara Young	James Chapman Clara Young 💍 1898/4796	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	27 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 23 years	Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/4274		26 October 1898	Rev. J. K. Elliott
393	27 October 1898	Peter Anderson Margaret Simpson	Peter Anderson Margaret Simpson McNaught 💍 1898/4788	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 28	Wellington Oamaru	8 days 24 years	St. John's Church, Melcombe Street, Wellington	98/4285		27 October 1898	Rev. James Paterson
394	27 October 1898	Frederick Walter Taber Emily Jane Palmer	Fletcher Walter Haber Emily Jane Palmer 💍 1898/4560	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. Charles Palmer, Hall Street, Wellington	98/4305		27 October 1898	Rev. W. Shirer
395	28 October 1898	Charles Kent Andrews Margaret Ellery Spiller	Charles Raut Andrews Margaret Mary Spiller 💍 1898/4798	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 21 years	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	98/4295		28 October 1898	Rev. W. C. Waters

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).