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 781

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
476	18 October 1898	William Stewart Alice Buick	William Stewart Alice Bull 💍 1898/3433	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter Tailoress	26 25	Sydenham Sydenham	26 Years 25 Years	Presbyterian Church Colombo Road	98/4490	29 October 1898	Rev. R. S. Allan, Presbyterian
477	18 October 1898	Arthur Philipson Taylor Mary Agnes McLean	Arthur Philipson Taylor Mary Agnes McLean 💍 1898/5026	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	31 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Presbyterian Manse	98/5091	31 October 1898	Rev. M. McCall, Presbyterian
478	2 November 1898	Alexander Whitley Mary Elizabeth Marriott	Alexander Whitley Mary Elizabeth Marriott 💍 1898/3411	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	29 29	Christchurch New Brighton	2 Years 16 Months	House of Mrs. Marriott	98/4543	2 November 1898	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
479	2 November 1898	Thomas Palmer Kate Marriott	Thomas Palmer Kate Marriott 💍 1898/3410	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic	26 26	Christchurch New Brighton	2 Years 25 Months	House of Mrs. Marriott	98/4542	2 November 1898	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
480	2 November 1898	Lionel Lingwood Cordery Alice May Robinson	Lionel Lingwood Cordery Alice May Robinson 💍 1898/4840	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Teacher	21 22	Christchurch Gloucester St. Christchurch	18 Years 4 Months	House of Mr. Robinson	98/4567	2 November 1898	Rev. J. Newbold, Wesleyan
481	2 November 1898	Charles Joseph Dixore Lucy Prior	Charles Joseph Dixon Lucy Prior 💍 1898/4706	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	32 38	Christchurch Christchurch	38 Years 28 Years	Methodist Church	98/4503	2 November 1898	Rev. T. H. Lyon, Methodist
482	3 November 1898	Samuel Earnia Parks Mary Jane Parks	Samuel Garvin Mary Jane Parks 💍 1898/3449	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 21	Christchurch St. Albans Christchurch	4 Years 21 Years	House of Mr. Parks	98/4482	3 November 1898	Rev. S. Webster, Presbyterian
483	5 November 1898	James Cotton Flora Sophia Hodmill	James Cotton Flora Sophia Rodmell 💍 1898/3422	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 Years 21 Years	St. Lukes Church	98/4530	5 November 1898	Rev. Van C. Day, 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).