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 705

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
396	31 October 1898	Edgar King Adolphene Elizabeth Mary Goldie	Alex Edgar King Adolphine Elizabeth Mary Goile 💍 1898/3321	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Levels Flat, Otago Hastings, Hawkes Bay	6 months 4 years 6 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4252		31 October 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
397	1 November 1898	William Wiseman Edith Graham	William Wiseman Edith Graham 💍 1898/2454	Widower Spinster	Saddler	38 27	Waipawa, Hawkes Bay Christchurch	11 years 6 months	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/4275		3 November 1898	Revd J. K. Elliott
398	2 November 1898	Sydney Evelyn Wright Helen Liddell	Sydney Evelyn Wright Helen Liddell 💍 1898/4790	Bachelor Spinster	Artilleryman	26 28	Wellington Wellington	2 years 6 months 7 months	Residence of Mr. James Michie, 4 Ingestre Place, Wellington	98/4287		2 November 1898	Revd Jas. Paterson
399	2 November 1898	Alfred Gene Georgina McFall	Alfred Genet Georgina McFall 💍 1898/3322	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 21	Wellington Wellington	11 months 11 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4253		2 November 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
400	3 November 1898	James Rudduck Elvina de la Haze	James Rudduck Elvina De La Haye 💍 1898/3323	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 21	Woodville Woodville	8 years 20 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4254		3 November 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
401	3 November 1898	Brace Willoughby Charles Ann Elizabeth Rhoda Collier	Horace Willoughby Charles Ann Elizabeth Rhode Collier 💍 1898/4801	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 17	Wellington Wellington	6 years 14 months	Residence of Mr. Thomas Watchery, Lower Taranaki St, Wellington	98/4276	John Collier, father	3 November 1898	Revd J. K. Elliott
402	3 November 1898	James O'Keeffe Hannah Carrick	James O'Keeffe Hannah Carrick 💍 1898/4584	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	36 36	Wellington Wellington	14 years 16 months	St. Joseph's Church, Buckle Street, Wellington	98/4330		3 November 1898	Revd Thomas De Voy
403	3 November 1898	John James Martin Gertrude Selina Tinney	John Thomas Martin Gertrude Selina Turney 💍 1898/5092	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	24 27	Wellington Wellington	7 years 29 months	St. Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington	98/4985		3 November 1898	Revd Frederick Waters
404	3 November 1898	James Stafford Adams Elizabeth Jane Hawkins	James Stafford Adams Elizabeth Jane Hawkings 💍 1898/3325	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 23	Horokiwi Horokiwi	6 months 5 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4256		3 November 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
405	4 November 1898	James Bishop Margaret Doyle	James Bishop Margaret Doyle 💍 1898/3324	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Driver	35 22	Levin Wellington	7 months 6 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	98/4255		4 November 1898	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar

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).