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 713

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
456	12 December 1898	George Lower Caroline Agnes Jenner	George Power Caroline Agnes Jenner 💍 1898/4540	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 26	Wellington Brooklyn	23 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. Jenner, Cleveland St, Brooklyn	98/4308		12 December 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer
457	12 December 1898	William Parsons Amy Tidman	William Parsons Amy Tidman 💍 1898/4539	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 25	Wellington Wellington	5 years 20 years	Residence of Mrs. Henry Tidman, Hall Street, Wellington	98/4307		12 December 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer
458	12 December 1898	Henry Gilbert Black Kate Horger	Henry Gilbert Black Kate Worger 💍 1898/4561	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	25 24	Wellington Wellington	3 years 7 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	98/4306		12 December 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer
459	12 December 1898	Herbert Tidman Theresa Harriett Emma Nicholson	Herbert Tidman Theresa Harriett Emma Nicholson 💍 1898/2783	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	29 19	Wellington Wellington	20 years 19 years	Residence of Mrs. A. Moore, 27 Tainui St, Wellington	98/4309	No person in Colony to give Consent	28 December 1898	Revd. Wm. Shirer
460	12 December 1898	Walter Garrett Fanny Barnes	Walter Garrett Fanny Barnes 💍 1898/3310	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 22	Wellington Makara	2 years 22 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/4265		12 December 1898	F. M. Mansfield, Registrar
461	13 December 1898	Robert Upchurch Helena Boyd	Albert Upchurch Helena Boyd 💍 1898/4571	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 22	Wellington Wellington	22 years 22 years	Residence of Mr. J. J. Boyd, Britomart St, Wellington	98/4341		13 December 1898	Revd. C. Lawry
462	14 December 1898	Charles Halcrow Fowlie Mary Stuart	Charles Halcrow Cowie Mary Stuart 💍 1898/3311	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 36	Wellington Wellington	3 years 6 months	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/4266		14 December 1898	F. M. Mansfield, Registrar
463	14 December 1898	John Clouston Isabella Margaret Milnes	John Clouston Sarah Margaret Wilcox 💍 1898/4793	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 26	Wellington Wellington	4 years 10 years	Residence of Mr. John Jameson, 12 St. Mary's St, Wellington	98/4291		14 December 1898	Revd. Jas. Paterson
464	15 December 1898	Rupert John Panther Lillias O'Loughlin	Rupert John Panther Millicent O'Loughlin 💍 1898/4555	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 20 years	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	98/4300		15 December 1898	Revd. W. C. Waters
465	15 December 1898	Frank Hales Minnie Beatrice Walker	Frank Hales Minnie Beatrice Walker 💍 1898/4569	Bachelor Spinster	Evangelist	34 22	Wellington Wellington	11 months 22 years	Church of Christ, Dixon Street, Wellington	98/4339		15 December 1898	M. A. F. Turner

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).