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 710

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
426	17 October 1898	Harry Sinclair Elliott Edith Annie Davis	Harry Sinclair Elliott Edith Annie Davis 💍 1898/4800	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk Law Clerk	25 33	Hawera Hawera	15 years 4.5 years	St Peter's Church, Wellington	98/4297		21 October 1898	Rev. M. Johnson
427	18 October 1898	John Thomson Edith Christina Rowden	Peter Thomson Edith Christina Rowden 💍 1898/4802	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Bank Clerk	31 26	Wellington Wellington	6 years 3.5 years	St Paul's Church, Thorndon, Wellington	98/4297		18 October 1898	Rev. R. K. Elliott
428	18 October 1898	William Henry Inceledon Florence May Legidga	William Henry Incledon Florence May Tregidga 💍 1898/4808	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman Quarryman	20 21	Wellington Wellington	20 years 2 years	St Paul's Church, Lower Hutt	98/4349	W. H. Inceledon, father	18 October 1898	Rev. Andrew Gray
429	21 October 1898	Walter Louis Thompson May Eveline Cook	Walter Lewis Thompson May Eveline Cook 💍 1898/5023	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Builder	35 24	Wellington Johnsonville	10 years 20 years	St John's Church, Johnsonville	98/5088		21 October 1898	Rev. E. H. Tancrede
430	22 October 1898	Cyril Sidney Rush Ellen Deborah Stanton	Cyril Sidney Rush Ellen Deborah Tantrum 💍 1898/3304	Bachelor Spinster	Sale Agent Sale Agent	23 17	Blenheim Levin	6 months 7 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/4259	Edwin Tantrum, father	22 October 1898	F. W. Manfield, Registrar
431	22 October 1898	Lewis Ethelbert Masters Christianne Kathleen Jordan	Louis Ethelbert Masters Christienne Kathleen Jordan 💍 1898/4564	Bachelor Spinster	Store Manager Store Manager	23 20	Wellington Wellington	7 years 15 years	St Mark's Church, Wellington	98/4334	John Jordan, father	22 October 1898	Rev. R. Coffey
432	23 October 1898	William Henry Higgins Emily Beaton	William Henry Higgins Nellie Pearson Woodyatt 💍 1898/3560	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Carpenter	20 22	Wellington Wellington	2.5 years 22 years	St Mary's Church, Angels			Certificate not issued
433	23 October 1898	John Bright Lucinda Argyle	John Bright Lucinda Boyle 💍 1898/3305	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	26 24	Para, Blenheim Wellington	12 years 9 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/4260		23 October 1898	F. W. Manfield, Registrar
434	24 October 1898	William White Ellen Carr	William White Ellen Carr 💍 1899/1278	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Engine Driver	22 22	Hukanui Wellington	6 months 17 years	St Paul's Cathedral, Wellington	99/1172		28 October 1898	Rev. T. H. Sprott
435	26 October 1898	Charles George Frederick Chronica Louisa Jane Spottiswood	Charles George Frederick Moriee Louisa Jane Spotswood Leddon 💍 1898/5072	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner Medical Practitioner	30 25	Greymouth Wellington	30 years 3 years	St Paul's Cathedral, Wellington	98/4987		28 October 1898	Right Rev. Churchill Julius

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).