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 715

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 October 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
476	20 December 1898	William Wright Corrie Emma Thompson Anderson	William Wright Carrie Anderson Emma Thompson 💍 1898/4557	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	24 24	Wellington Wellington	2 years 7 years	St Peters Church, Wellington	98/4302		20 December 1898	Revd W.C. Waters
477	20 December 1898	Henry Roberts Emily Ann Webb	Henry Roberts Emily Ann Webb 💍 1898/4807	Bachelor Spinster	Pastry Cook	24 29	Wellington Wellington	5 years 6 months	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/4282		20 December 1898	Revd J.R. Elliott
478	20 December 1898	Ambrose Hushey Port Sarah Elizabeth Batt	Ambrose Hughey Port Sarah Elizabeth Batt 💍 1898/4572	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Teacher	27 30	Wellington Mangamahoe	29 years 2 years	Congregational Church, Courtenay Place, Wellington	98/4342		22 December 1898	Revd Wm. Simpson Ferne
479	20 December 1898	Douglas Shelley Redingfield Hannah Gertrude Thompson	Douglas Shelley Bedingfield Hannah Gertrude Thompson 💍 1898/4806	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Teacher	30 22	Paikakariki Wellington	6 1/2 years 22 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/4281		20 December 1898	Revd J.R. Elliott
480	20 December 1898	Alexander McBain Violet Hermina Caste	Alexander McBain Violet Hermina Carte 💍 1898/4795	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	31 25	Te Horo Wellington	3 years 11 years	St Johns Church, Wellington	98/4293		20 December 1898	Revd Jas. Paterson
481	20 December 1898	Charles Daniel Fox Ethel Minnie Surch	Charles Daniel Fox Ethel Minnie Burch 💍 1898/4576	Widower Spinster	Paperhanger	28 20	Wellington Wellington	28 years 20 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb St, Wellington	98/4345	Robert Burch - father	20 December 1898	Revd Jno. Dawson
482	20 December 1898	Andrew Grey Jessie Minola	Andrew Gray Levina Minola 💍 1898/3314	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	32 19	Wellington Wellington	14 months 19 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4268	Mary Sandstrom - mother	20 December 1898	J.W. Mansfield, Registrar
483	21 December 1898	Nathaniel Heighton Jessie Jane Ramsbothom	Nathaniel Heighton Louisa Jane Ramsbottom 💍 1898/4541	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Machinist	23 23	Wadestown Wellington	18 years 9 years	Residence of M.F. Hand, 83 Adelaide Rd, Wellington	98/4310		21 December 1898	Revd Wm. Shirer
484	21 December 1898	Henry Hill Emily Benningfield	Henry Hill Emily Benningfield 💍 1898/4556	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	66 44	Takapau, Hawkes Bay Wellington	10 years 1 year	St Peters Church, Wellington	98/4301		21 December 1898	Revd W.C. Waters
485	21 December 1898	George Lytle Elizabeth Morgan	George Lyle Elizabeth Morgan 💍 1898/3315	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 23	J.D. Rushmere, Wellington Wellington	5 days 3 weeks	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4269		21 December 1898	J.W. Mansfield, Registrar

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).