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 777

District of Christchurch 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
446	13 October 1898	Herbert Bettrand Vitale Alice Jane Spenster	Herbert Bertrand Veitch Alice Judge 💍 1898/25	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman Tailoress	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 21 years	St. Paul's Church, Christchurch	98/4536		13 October 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
447	13 October 1898	Frank Harvey Annie Chapman	Frank Harvey Annie Champness 💍 1898/4846	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	34 35	Christchurch Christchurch	18 years 30 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	98/4573		13 October 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
448	14 October 1898	Peter Reynolds Charlotte Atkinson	Peter Reynolds Charlotte Atkinson 💍 1898/4599	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	27 20	St. Albans St. Albans	2 months 1 month	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	98/4444	William John Atkinson, father	14 October 1898	Registrar of Marriages
449	17 October 1898	Charles Houghton Bond Nelly O'Donnell	Charles Hingston Bond Nelly O'Donnell 💍 1898/3522	Bachelor Spinster	Verger Domestic	28 36	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church, Manchester St.	98/5010		17 October 1898	Rev. Father Malone, Roman Catholic
450	17 October 1898	John Riley Sarah Jane Halligan	John Riley Sarah Jane Halligan 💍 1898/4847	Widower Spinster	Cab Proprietor Domestic	46 41	Sydenham Sydenham	17 years 8 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	98/4574		17 October 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
451	18 October 1898	John Clarke Nellie Kay Doyle	John Clarke Nellie Kay 💍 1898/4600	Widower Spinster	Tram Guard Domestic	38 24	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 24 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	98/4445		18 October 1898	Registrar of Marriages
452	18 October 1898	William Glass Eliza Shaw	William Glassey Doyle Ella Shaw 💍 1898/3439 William Pringle Elizabeth Shaw 💍 1898/1917	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 21 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	98/4495		18 October 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
453	18 October 1898	Arthur Augustus Sadler Sarah Blay	Arthur Augustus Sadler Sarah Blay 💍 1898/3450	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Domestic	25 21	Linwood Sydenham	3 days 4 years	Holy Trinity Church, Avonside	98/4575		18 October 1898	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican

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).