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 711

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
436	28 December 1898	Richard Cleare Coutts Ellen Mallinder	Richard Neave Coutts Ellen Mallinder 💍 1898/5146	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	23 22	Petone Petone	8 months 4 years	Residence of Mr George Packwood, Mclvor St, Petone	98/4906		28 December 1898	Revd Alexr. Thomson
437	28 December 1898	Joseph Davenport Avery Edith Eleanor Whiton	Joseph Devenport Avery Edith Eleanor Whitton 💍 1898/4542	Bachelor Spinster	Clark	24 30	Wellington Wellington	16 years 10 years	St Marks Church, Wellington	98/4311		28 December 1898	Revd R. Coffey
438	28 December 1898	Francis Charles Young Hannah Fallon	Francis Charles Young Hannah Callon 💍 1898/3306	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	27 22	Wellington Wellington	27 years 2 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4281		28 December 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
439	28 December 1898	Thomas William Collier Edith Hawthorn	Thomas William Collier Edith Hawthorn 💍 1898/3307	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Stapler Music Teacher	26 20	Island Bay Wellington	6 years 18 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4282	Caroline Hawthorn, Mother	28 December 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
440	29 December 1898	Walter Charles Cooper Sylvia Grace Sutton	Walter Charles Cooper Sylvia Grace Sutton 💍 1898/4543	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 24	Karori Wellington	18 months 4 years	Residence of Mr Edward Cooper, Brooklyn	98/4312		29 December 1898	Revd Wm Bamber
441	29 December 1898	George Bartlett Kerr Lucy Eleanor Hodgetts	George Bartlett Kerr Lucy Eleanor Hodgetts 💍 1898/3308	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Saleswoman	29 27	Wellington Wellington	11 months 11 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4283		29 December 1898	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
442	29 December 1898	William Henry Young Ada Lancaster	William Henry Young Ada Lancaster 💍 1898/4558	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Servant	34 23	Karori Karori	9 years 7 years	St Marys Church, Karori	98/4303		29 December 1898	Revd Alexr. Dasent
443	1 December 1898	Thomas William Donald Amy Gertrude Kimbell	Thomas William McDonald Amy Gertrude Kimbell 💍 1898/4538	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 19	Wellington Wellington	5 years 6 years	St Peters Church, Wellington	98/4298	Alfred Charles Kimbell, Father	1 December 1898	Revd W. C. Waters
444	2 December 1898	Robert George Hill Bedelia May Foreman	Robert George Hill Bedelia May Foreman 💍 1898/4544	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	22 17	Wellington Wellington	13 years 17 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki St, Wellington	98/4313	Thomas Foreman, Father	2 December 1898	Revd Wm Bamber
445	2 December 1898	Walter Morgan Mary Ellen Hooper	Walter Morgan Mary Ellen Hooper 💍 1898/3309	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 23	Aha Tarawa Chungaroa	6 years 23 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4284		2 December 1898	F. 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).