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 835

District of Timaru 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
53	9 November 1898	Alexander Robertson Lavinia Martha Gardner	Alexander Robertson Lavenia Martha Gardner 💍 1898/5113	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Dressmaker	23 19	Timaru Timaru	18 years 19 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr E. Muchmore, Elizabeth St. Timaru	98/4634	J. D. Gardner, Father	19 November 1898	Rev. P. W. Jones, Primitive Methodist Minister
54	30 November 1898	John Grey Wilkin Edith Agnes Horn	John Grey Wilkin Edith Agnes Kerr 💍 1898/5110	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	24 24	Timaru Timaru	4 days 1 year	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	98/4630		30 November 1898	Rev. J. M. Whitehead, Church of England Clergyman
55	6 December 1898	John Campbell Flora Macdonald	John Campbell Flora MacDonald 💍 1898/2852	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 25	Woodbury Claremont	20 years 14 years	Dwellinghouse of Murdo Matheson, Claremont	98/4643		6 December 1898	Rev. Wm. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
56	9 December 1898	Francis Burns Rachel Aitken	Francis Burns Rachel Aiken 💍 1898/5096	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	21 25	Timaru Timaru	21 years 15 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. C. Buttle, Butler St. Timaru	98/4638		9 December 1898	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister
57	12 December 1898	Charles James Peter Violet Julia Sealy	Charles James Peter Violet Julia Sealy 💍 1898/5109	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	31 23	Anama, Ashburton Timaru	31 years 23 years	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	98/4629		12 December 1898	Rev. P. C. Bocks, Church of England Clergyman
58	19 December 1898	Mark Higgins Elfreda Gosling	Mark Higgins Elfreda Hosking 💍 1898/5095	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Dressmaker	26 25	Timaru Timaru	12 years 6 years	Dwellinghouse of J. Pearson, Avenue Rd. Timaru	98/4637		19 December 1898	Rev. George Burgess, Independent Minister
59	24 December 1898	Rowland Syder Annie Laura Hendry	Rowland Syder Jessie Laura Hendry Lees 💍 1898/5097	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer Salvation Army Officer	30 28	Timaru Timaru	5 days 6 months	Salvation Army Barracks, Timaru	98/4639		24 December 1898	Major Jonah Evans, Salvation Army Officer

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).