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 773

District of Ashburton 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
1071	12 October 1898	Robert Kellahan Mary Ellery	Robert Kellahan Mary Ellery 💍 1898/4608	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	23 19	Mayfield Mayfield	9 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church at Ashburton	98/4430	William Brewer Ellery, father	12 October 1898	Reverend Geo. B. Inglis
1072	21 October 1898	William Ralph Compton Indiana M. Roben		Widower Spinster	Pound Keeper Dressmaker	52 40	Ashburton Christchurch	5 years 5 years	Private Dwelling at Christchurch	98/541		21 October 1898	Reverend C. H. Porter
1073	21 October 1898	Edwin Albert Watkins Emma Frisby	Edwin Albert Watkins Emma Frisby 💍 1898/3500	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	23 23	Tinwald Ashburton	5 years 5 years	Private Residence of Reverend C. H. Mann	98/5002		21 October 1898	Reverend C. H. Mann
1074	29 October 1898	John Tait Mary McKay	John Tait Mary Hickey 💍 1898/4607	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	21 22	Hinds Hinds	5 years 30 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	98/4429		29 October 1898	J. Mard, Registrar
1075	7 November 1898	William Houston Jessie Geddings	William Houston Jessie Heling 💍 1898/4594	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 17	Ashburton Allenton	3 months 17 years	Private Dwelling of George Geddings, Allenton	98/4440	George Geddings, father	7 November 1898	Reverend J. A. Hamilton
1076	10 November 1898	Joseph Henry Anderson Annie Gillespie	Joseph Henry Anderson Annie Gillespie 💍 1898/4589	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 19	Flemington Flemington	22 years 19 years	Presbyterian Church at Flemington	98/4435	Robert Gillespie, brother	10 November 1898	Reverend James Stainer
1077	15 November 1898	John Donaldson Matilda Jane Anderson	John Donaldson Matilda Jane Anderson 💍 1898/4590	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Masterton Flemington	21 years 15 years	Presbyterian Church at Flemington	98/4436		15 November 1898	Reverend James Stainer
1078	19 November 1898	Henry Matthew Ganner Jane Helena Stott	Henry Walton Garner Jane Helena Steel 💍 1898/4593	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Classer	27 22	Allenton Allenton	7 months 10 years	Baptist Church, Ashburton	98/4439		19 November 1898	Reverend Albert Ager
1079	21 November 1898	James Heasley Jane Elizabeth Baker	James Heasley Jane Elizabeth Baker 💍 1898/4595	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	23 24	Ashburton Ashburton	6 months 10 years	Church of St. Stephen, Ashburton	98/4441		21 November 1898	Reverend Thomas A. Hamilton
1080	26 November 1898	Caleb Ernest Morrish Alice Elizabeth Woodley	Caleb Ernest Norrish Alice Elizabeth Woodley 💍 1898/4588	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	30 30	Hinds Gleadless, Hinds	16 years 10 years	Wesleyan Church, Hinds	98/4433		26 November 1898	Reverend J. Mather

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).