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 947

District of Tokomairiro 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
808	8 October 1898	James Thomas Young Ada Mary Crossan	James Thomas Young Ida Mary Crossan 💍 1898/5058	Bachelor Spinster	Archer Home duties	23 21	Milton Milton	4 days 4 days	Registry Office, Milton	98/5048	8 October 1898	R. C. Black, Registrar
809	15 October 1898	James Martin Forsyth Margaret Cameron	James Martin Forsyth Mary Jane Cameron 💍 1898/4920	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	31 26	Milton Glenore	11 years 26 years	Bride's father's residence, Glenore	98/4873	15 October 1898	Rev. Jas. Chisholm
810	4 November 1898	Thomas Moore Marion Quill		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	29 31	Millburn Milton	6 months 31 years	Roman Catholic Church, Milton	98/4874	4 November 1898	Rev. Jas. O'Neill
811	5 November 1898	Alfred Stephen Archer Mary Catherine Ashmore	Alfred Stephen Archer Mary Catherine Ashmore 💍 1898/4917	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Weaver	22 22	Milton Akatore, Milton	22 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. Shutt, Milton	98/4870	5 November 1898	Rev. Geo. Hornwell
812	26 November 1898	John Charles Harkness Mary Blymont	John Chisholm Harkness Mary Bell McClymont 💍 1898/2451	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Tailoress	32 32	Milton Milton	14 years 32 years	Residence of Bride's father, Milton	98/5112	26 November 1898	Rev. Jas. Chisholm
813	30 November 1898	Thomas Wilnesky Henrietta Kay	Bernard Wisnesky Henrietta Kay 💍 1898/4922	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	25 23	Waihola Waihola	25 years 4 years	Michael's Residence, Waihola	98/4875	30 November 1898	Rev. Jas. O'Neill
814	3 December 1898	Edwin Roland Moore Louisa Frances Fund	Edwin Roland Moore Lucillia Evelyne Finch 💍 1898/4919	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Home duties	23 21	Millburn Millburn	23 years 21 years	Home of William, Millburn	98/4872	3 December 1898	Rev. Jas. Somerville
815	20 December 1898	John Bayley Junior Mary Jane Scholfield	John Bayley Mary Hoick Scholefield 💍 1898/4918	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher Home duties	35 25	Milton Milton	3 days 10 years	Episcopal Church, Milton	98/4871	20 December 1898	Rev. J. C. Small
816	28 December 1898	Thomas Roberts Florence Devereux	Ernest Roberts Florence Devereux 💍 1898/5059	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Home duties	26 22	Milton Milton	4 days 4 days	Registry Office, Milton	98/5049	28 December 1898	R. C. Black, Registrar

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).