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 885

District of East Taieri Quarter ending 31 December 1895

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
21	1 October 1895	John William Robinson Catherine Johnston	John William Rollinson Catherine Johnston 💍 1898/3531	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Taieri Flat Taieri Flat	2 years 1 year	House of Robert Robinson, Taieri Flat	98/5713	7 October 1895	Rev. T. H. Fenton
22	10 October 1895	Edward Thomas Kemp Lily Eleanor Charlton	Edward Thomas Monk Lily Ellenor Charlton 💍 1898/5051	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	21 21	North Taieri North Taieri	2 months 3 days	Office of Registrar, Mosgiel	98/5041	12 October 1895	Registrar
23	11 October 1895	Harry Smith Maggie Passell	Harry Smith Maggie Russell 💍 1898/5050	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 25	Mosgiel Saddle Hill	2 years 4 years	Presbyterian Church, Mosgiel	98/5040	11 October 1895	Rev. J. S. [illegible]
24	1 November 1895	John Fray Ellen Annie Lawson Frewell	John Wray Ellen Annie Lawson Howell 💍 1898/4875	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 25	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 13 years	Wesleyan Church, Mosgiel	98/4772	1 November 1895	Rev. T. Brooke
25	15 November 1895	Thomas James Echwood Jennie Stewart	Samuel James Hopwood Jeannie Stewart 💍 1898/4874	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Abbotsford East Taieri	5 years 3 days	House of Mr. Stewart, Taieri	98/4771	15 November 1895	Rev. F. T. Horsham
26	22 November 1895	James Jones Wilson Jane Muir	James Thomas Gibson Jane Muir 💍 1898/4872	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 24	Otakia North Taieri	18 months 1 year	House of Robert Muir, East Taieri	98/4769	22 November 1895	Rev. Thos. Paulin
27	13 December 1895	William Allan Grace Oliver Allan	William Allan Agnes Oliver Allan 💍 1898/2798	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	29 28	Mosgiel East Taieri	4 years 1 year	House of John Allan, Bellfield, East Taieri	98/4773	13 December 1895	Rev. Wm. [illegible]
28	23 December 1895	John Markley Gibson Susanna Hastings Gibson	John Meiklejohn Susanna Hastings Gibson 💍 1898/4873	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	29 30	North Taieri North Taieri	3 days 30 years	House of Robert Gibson, Reinton, North Taieri	98/4770	23 December 1895	Rev. Thos. Paulin

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).