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 717

District of Wellington 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
496	28 December 1898	George Thomas Baker Lucretia Watkins	George Thomas Baker Lucretia Watkins 💍 1898/4787	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Tailoress	29 32	Foxton Wellington	15 Months 16 Months	Private Residence of Revd. J.R. Elliott, Pirie Street, Wellington	98/4284		28 December 1898	Revd. J.R. Elliott
497	28 December 1898	James Wilson Davidson Priscilla Rosina Pearce	James Wilson Davidson Priscilla Rogers Pearce 💍 1899/470	Bachelor Spinster	Bookseller Dressmaker	31 32	Wellington Wellington	3 1/2 years 3 years	Residence of Revd. J.R. Elliott, Pirie Street, Wellington	99/555		28 December 1898	Revd. J.R. Elliott
498	28 December 1898	Richard Hent Lizzie Maud Benn	Richard Stent Lizzie Maud Benn 💍 1898/2458	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	42 31	Wellington Wellington	18 Months 12 Months	Mos Convent Schoolroom, Hill Street, Wellington	98/4323		28 December 1898	Revd. M.G. Lewis
499	28 December 1898	Robert Reid Elizabeth Williams	Robert Reid Elizabeth Williams 💍 1899/771	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Wellington Wellington	23 years 8 years	Residence of Mr. H. Hayes, Pirie Street, Wellington	99/689		28 December 1898	Revd. Jas. Paterson
500	28 December 1898	Isaac George Livermore Elizabeth Reid	Horace George Livermore Elizabeth Reid 💍 1899/769	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	23 22	Wellington Wellington	8 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. H. Hayes, Pirie Street, Wellington	99/690		28 December 1898	Revd. Jas. Paterson
501	28 December 1898	Berham George Stiker Emma Elizabeth Hawkins	Bertram George Aiken Harkness Emma Elizabeth Hawkins 💍 1899/558	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 19	Stratford Makara	3 years 19 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	99/501	Frederick Henry Hawkins - Father	28 December 1898	F.W. Mansfield, Registrar
502	28 December 1898	Frank Burley Philippa Jane Wright	Frank Burnley Philippa Jane Knight 💍 1899/703	Widower Spinster	Cloth Finisher	42 31	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	4 years 31 years	Wesleyan Church, Lower Hutt	99/597		28 December 1898	Revd. Joseph Gray
503	28 December 1898	William Hancock		Bachelor	Painter	23	Wellington	23 years	House of Mr. Thomas Hill, Rolleston St., Wellington	99/581		28 December 1898	A.C. Lawry, Revd. Wm. Thiers
504	29 December 1898	John McGuire Ann Elizabeth Stych	John McGuire Ann Elizabeth Stych 💍 1899/611	Bachelor Spinster	Attendant	27 21	Porirua Wellington	15 Months 21 years	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	99/530		29 December 1898	Revd. A.M. Johnson
505	29 December 1898	George Steven Miller Julia Douglas Harden	George Steven Miller Jessie Douglas Warden 💍 1899/469	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	38 31	Wellington Wellington	2 years 1 year	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	99/554		29 December 1898	Revd. J.R. Elliott

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).