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 793

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
562	19 December 1898	William Henry Bachel Harriet Ellen Spenice Wright	William Henry Boundy Harriet Eliza Wright 💍 1898/4844	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 21 years	House of Rev. J. N. Newbold, Barbour Road	98/4571	19 December 1898	Rev. J. N. Newbold, Wesleyan
563	20 December 1898	John Bird Ellen Bowers	John Bird Ellen Bowers 💍 1898/4696	Widower Widow	Labourer Nurse	61 56	Sydenham Christchurch	4 months 13 years	House of Rev. J. J. North, Paulson, Sydenham	98/4577	20 December 1898	Rev. J. J. North, Baptist
564	20 December 1898	Duncan Donald Urquhart Florence Jane Mary Raston		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	20 21	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 5 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Christchurch		20 December 1898	Registrar of Marriages
565	20 December 1898	William Ernest Cox Elizabeth Ann Quanty	William Earnest Cox Elizabeth Ann Quaitly 💍 1899/946	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housemaid	22 26	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 26 years	St. Paul's Church, West Melton	99/810	20 December 1898	Rev. G. Hawkins, Anglican
566	21 December 1898	Robert Reece Wardle Kathleen Wyatt	Robert Reed Wardle Kathleen Wyatt 💍 1898/3403	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	25 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 month	St. Luke's Church, Christchurch	98/4535	20 December 1898	Rev. C. L. T. Langford, Anglican
567	21 December 1898	John Samuel Neville Frances Churchill Andrews	John Samuel Neville Frances Elizabeth Andrews 💍 1899/871	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Assistant	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 22 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	99/776	21 December 1898	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican
568	21 December 1898	Peter Lloyd Davies Lydia Sude Tailness	Peter Lloyd Davies Lydia Luke 💍 1898/3389	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Tailoress	29 29	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 29 years	St. Paul's Road, Malvern	98/4469	21 December 1898	Rev. R. Erwin, Presbyterian
569	22 December 1898	John Loe Constance Mary Gill	John Loe Constance Mary Gill 💍 1898/3419	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	15 years 10 years	St. James' Church, Claude	98/4527	22 December 1898	Rev. A. Scott, 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).