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 784

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
498	14 November 1898	Joseph Campion Rosetta Porter	Joseph Campion Rosetta Amelia Foster 💍 1898/3507	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic	46 39	Broadfields Broadfields	12 Years 3 months	Wesleyan Parsonage	98/5017		14 November 1898	Rev. T. Fee, Wesleyan
499	14 November 1898	Wallis Tipler Ann Jane Robinson	Walter Tipler Ann Jane Robinson 💍 1898/4704	Bachelor Widow	Teacher Teacher	57 41	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 3 years	St. Michaels Church	98/4501		14 November 1898	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican
500	15 November 1898	Thomas Rowan May Jane George	Thomas Dwan Mary Jane George 💍 1898/3426	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Waitress	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 1 year	Roman Catholic Church, 1 Barbados St.	98/4474		15 November 1898	Rev. P. Treacy, Roman Catholic
501	16 November 1898	Ernest Joseph O'Donohue Ellen Sparks	Ernest Joseph ODonohue Ellen Sparks 💍 1898/3437	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Church, 1 Barbados St.	98/4475		16 November 1898	Very Rev. Father des Chesnais, Roman Catholic
502	18 November 1898	Herbert Ford Griffin Edith Batchelor	Herbert Ford Griffin Edith Batchelor 💍 1898/4707	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	32 23	Christchurch Kilmore St.	32 years 23 years	House of Mr. J. Batchelor	98/4504		18 November 1898	Rev. C. A. Lowe, Primitive Methodist
503	18 November 1898	Herbert Preston Amelia Ball	Herbert Preston Gunner Amelia Ball 💍 1898/3398	Bachelor Spinster	Strider	23 18	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 18 years	Registrar's Office	98/4455	George Ball, Father	18 November 1898	Registrar
504	21 November 1898	William Chegwidden Sarah Fletcher	William Chegwin Sarah Fletcher 💍 1898/4693	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	42 29	Sydenham Christchurch	23 years 9 months	House of Edward Chegwidden, Queen Street, Sydenham	98/4574		21 November 1898	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
505	21 November 1898	Alfred Sibley Sarah Jane Harwood	Alfred Tibley Lena Sarah Jane Harwood 💍 1898/3399	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 11 years	Registrar's Office	98/4456		21 November 1898	Registrar, J. M. Macpherson

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).