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 782

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
484	5 November 1898	William Nameanows Edith Amy Collier	William Nancarrow Edith Amy Collier 💍 1898/4850	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	27 27	Christchurch Christchurch	27 Years 27 Years	House of Mr. S. Collier, Lower High Street, Christchurch	98/4554		5 November 1898	Rev. S. McNicoll, Presbyterian
485	5 November 1898	William Rennie Alice Susannah Sunderland	William Rennie Alice Susannah Sunderland 💍 1898/4832	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 29	Sunderland East Belt, Richmond	28 Years 12 Years	House of Mr. R. I. Sunderland, East Belt, Richmond	98/4550		5 November 1898	Rev. W. George, Presbyterian
486	5 November 1898	Clement Walden Coles Annie Alberta Richards	Clement Waldron Coles Annie Alberta Richards 💍 1898/3421	Bachelor Spinster	Manufacturer	25 26	Linwood Linwood	25 Years 1 Year	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	98/4529		5 November 1898	Rev. Archd. Lingard, Anglican
487	7 November 1898	Samuel Penketh Marion Sophia Johnston	Samuel Parker Marion Sophia Johnston 💍 1898/4691	Widower Spinster	Painter Housekeeper	61 34	Christchurch 24 Colombo Road, Sydenham	25 Years 24 Years	House of Mrs. Johnston, 24 Colombo Road, Sydenham	98/4572		7 November 1898	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
488	7 November 1898	James Edwin Main Mary Ann Kelly	James Edwin Main Mary Anne Kelly 💍 1898/3393	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 23	Christchurch Christchurch	26 Years 23 Years	Roman Catholic Church, Barbadoes Street	98/4473		7 November 1898	Rev. L. C. Serrageau, Roman Catholic
489	7 November 1898	Arthur Hughes Graham Lily Theresa Jane Graham	Arthur Knight Lily Thresa Jane Graham 💍 1898/4835	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 19	Papanui Christchurch	2 Years 19 Years	House of Mr. James Graham, Cambridge Terrace	98/4561	James Graham, father	7 November 1898	Rev. J. J. Bode, Baptist
490	8 November 1898	Thomas Lucas Mary Liller	Thomas Lucas Mary Tiller 💍 1898/3418	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 23	Christchurch Richmond	3 Days 4 Years	House of Mr. George Liller, Perth Street	98/4549		8 November 1898	Rev. W. George, Presbyterian

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).