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 229

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
344	13 September 1898	Charles Harding Rata Alice Thacker	Charles Harding Beta Alice Thacker 💍 1898/4138	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Wellington Wellington	10 years 10 years	House of Mrs Thacker, Taranaki Street, Wellington	98/3590	20 September 1898	Rev. John Dunbell
345	14 September 1898	Alexander Thompson Mackenzie Ellen Lohanery		Bachelor Widow	Engineer	22 24	Wellington Wellington	5 hours 10 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington		14 September 1898	Rev. Wm. Baumber
349	14 September 1898	Henry Newey Elizabeth Mary Wilson	Henry Newey Elizabeth Mary Wilson 💍 1898/3842	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 22	Wellington Wellington	4 years 22 years	St Paul's Pro Cathedral, Wellington	98/3068	14 September 1898	Rev. F. G. Masters
350	15 September 1898	Robert Elliott McDonald Emma Lillian Aitken	Robert Elliott McDonald Emma Lillian Aitken 💍 1898/3806	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	34 24	Wellington Wellington	30 years 14 years	Rev. W. Shirer's House, Adelaide Road, Wellington	98/3031	15 September 1898	Rev. Wm. Shirer
351	17 September 1898	Mathew Ferguson Gibson Eva Elizabeth Standen	Mathew Ferguson Gibson Eva Elizabeth Standen 💍 1898/3813	Bachelor Spinster	Machine Ruler	27 22	Wellington Wellington	20 years 22 years	Presbyterian Church, Wellington	98/3037	17 September 1898	Rev. J. K. Elliott
352	19 September 1898	Arthur Poulson Florence Mary Shands	Arthur Poulson Florence May Shand 💍 1898/4280	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Bideford Wellington	4 months 14 months	St Peter's Church, Wellington	98/3656	21 September 1898	Rev. W. C. Waters
353	19 September 1898	Thomas Clayton Janet Shiel Simpson	Thomas Clayton Janet Skiel Simpson 💍 1898/2482	Bachelor Spinster	Roller Mill Foreman	25 21	Kaiapoi Galashiels, Scotland	1 year 15 months	Registrar's Office	98/3001	21 September 1898	Registrar
354	19 September 1898	Walter Rouse Margaret Mary Miller	Walter Rouse Margaret Mary Miller 💍 1898/3821	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 22	Wellington Petone	18 months 21 years	House of Jas. Miller, Hutt Road, Petone	98/3024	19 September 1898	Rev. Alex. Thomson
355	20 September 1898	Albert George Hoar Monica Conway	Albert George Hoar Monica Conway 💍 1898/4145	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	28 23	Masterton Wellington	19 years 7 years	House of Edward Reid, Riddiford Street, Wellington	98/3661	20 September 1898	Rev. A. Lawry
356	20 September 1898	Edmund Philip Davies Edith Sarah Elizabeth Johnson	Edmund Philip Orviss Edith Marion Elizabeth Johnson 💍 1898/2997	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 21	Petone Petone	6 years 21 years	St Augustine Church, Petone	98/3064	20 September 1898	Rev. J. D. Russell

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).