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 624

District of Napier 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
98	19 November 1898	Hubert Edward Unwin Elizabeth Jane Unwin	Hubert Edward Unwin Elizabeth Jane Maud Brothers 💍 1898/3292	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 21	Napier Napier	8 months 21 years	In the office of Registrar of Marriages at Napier	98/4101	Maud Brother	19 November 1898	J. D. Cameron Depy Registrar
99	21 November 1898	Mark Davis Eleanor Maud Parsons	Mark Davis Eleanor Maude Parsons 💍 1898/4532	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 20	Clive Clive	1 year 8 months 18 years	Residence of Mr. Parsons at Clive	98/4106	Sarah Parsons Mother	21 November 1898	Rev. R. W. G. Parsons, Wesleyan
100	22 November 1898	Lawrence Yates Ada Emily Ann Winsor	William Lawrence Yates Ada Emily Ann Winson 💍 1898/4929	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	28 32	Napier Napier	28 years 4 years	St. Augustine's Church Napier	98/4956		22 November 1898	Rev. H. E. Taylor
101	22 November 1898	Ferdinand Jackson Howard Charles Louisa Gertrude Kelly		Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	30 24	Napier Napier	1 year 16 years	Residence of Bride's Father at Napier	98/4107		22 November 1898	Rev. H. F. Millar
102	3 December 1898	Olof Rowell Ambrosia Stevens	Olaf Rosvall Amy Louisa Stevens 💍 1898/4930	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Cook	30 26	Napier Napier	16 years 5 months	Residence of Mr. Carlson, Western Spit	98/4957		3 December 1898	Rev. H. E. Taylor
103	3 December 1898	Charles Howsll Clara Sophia Williams	Charles Howell Clara Sophia Williams 💍 1898/4514	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	31 19	Rissington Rissington	13 years 16 years	Residence of Mr. Williams, Rissington	98/4112	Wm. Williams, father	3 December 1898	Rev. A. P. Clarke, Ch. of England
104	5 December 1898	Donald McKinnon Mary Miller	Donald McKinnon Mary Miller 💍 1898/4534	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Teacher	35 31	Morangiangi Napier	6 Months 20 years	Residence of the Bride's Father, Napier	98/4108		5 December 1898	Rev. D. S. D. Whyte, Presbyterian
105	5 December 1898	Frederick John Sexton Harriet Isabella Martin	Frederick John Sexton Harriet Isabella Martin 💍 1898/4991	Widower Widow	Butcher	43 30	Napier Napier	1 year 25 years	Cathedral	98/3055		5 December 1898	Dean Howsll, Ch. of England

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).