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 906

District of Invercargill Quarter ending 31 December 1898 Registrar John Logan Bush

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

145

21 December 1898

Hugh Burns
Sarah Jane Race

Hugh Burns
Sarah Jane Neill
💍 1898/4870

Bachelor
Spinster

Wool Classer

23
21

Invercargill
Invercargill

3 years
3 days

Office of the Registrar

98/4791

21 December 1898

J. L. Bush, Registrar

No	145
Date of Notice	21 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Burns	Sarah Jane Race
BDM Match (84%)	Hugh Burns	Sarah Jane Neill
	💍 1898/4870
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wool Classer
Age	23	21
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	3 years	3 days
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar
Folio	98/4791
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 December 1898
Officiating Minister	J. L. Bush, Registrar

146

21 December 1898

Charles Emile Lew
Lois Hansen McClelland

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
24

Invercargill
Invercargill

21 years
18 years

House of Rev. John Weir, Jackson St.

98/4805

21 December 1898

Rev. Geo. Lindsay

No	146
Date of Notice	21 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Emile Lew	Lois Hansen McClelland
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	24
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	21 years	18 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. John Weir, Jackson St.
Folio	98/4805
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 December 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Lindsay

147

22 December 1898

William John Diamond
Mary Isabella Bissett

William John Diamond
Mary Isabella Bissett
💍 1898/4871

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

24
18

Waianiwa
Waianiwa

21 years
18 years

Office of the Registrar

98/4792

Catherine Bissett, Mother

22 December 1898

J. L. Bush, Registrar

No	147
Date of Notice	22 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William John Diamond	Mary Isabella Bissett
	💍 1898/4871
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	24	18
Dwelling Place	Waianiwa	Waianiwa
Length of Residence	21 years	18 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar
Folio	98/4792
Consent	Catherine Bissett, Mother
Date of Certificate	22 December 1898
Officiating Minister	J. L. Bush, Registrar

148

22 December 1898

Joseph Hewitt
Helen Craig Joss

Joseph Hewitt
Helen Craig Joss
💍 1898/3487

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

28
26

Invercargill
Invercargill

24 years
24 years

House of Rev. H. Gills, Leet Street

98/4812

22 December 1898

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	148
Date of Notice	22 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Hewitt	Helen Craig Joss
	💍 1898/3487
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	28	26
Dwelling Place	Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	24 years	24 years
Marriage Place	House of Rev. H. Gills, Leet Street
Folio	98/4812
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 December 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

149

23 December 1898

Gilbert Brown
Janet Adamson

Gilbert Brown
Janet Adamson
💍 1898/3485

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Employee

25
22

South Invercargill
Invercargill

25 years
20 years

First Presbyterian Church, Tay Street

98/4811

23 December 1898

Rev. J. Gibson Smith

No	149
Date of Notice	23 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Brown	Janet Adamson
	💍 1898/3485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Employee
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	South Invercargill	Invercargill
Length of Residence	25 years	20 years
Marriage Place	First Presbyterian Church, Tay Street
Folio	98/4811
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1898
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gibson Smith

150

23 December 1898

David Grindlay
Elizabeth Eva Dawson

David Grindlay
Elizabeth Eva Dawson
💍 1898/4899

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawmill Employee

25
27

South Invercargill
One Tree Point

12 years
12 years

Salvation Army Barracks, Tay Street

98/4824

23 December 1898

Major Bennett

No	150
Date of Notice	23 December 1898
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	David Grindlay	Elizabeth Eva Dawson
	💍 1898/4899
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawmill Employee
Age	25	27
Dwelling Place	South Invercargill	One Tree Point
Length of Residence	12 years	12 years
Marriage Place	Salvation Army Barracks, Tay Street
Folio	98/4824
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 December 1898
Officiating Minister	Major Bennett

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).