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 223

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1895

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
287	20 July 1895	William Aplin Sarah Mary Woodhouse	William Aplin Edith Mary Woodhouse 💍 1898/2998	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	24 19	Crofton Crofton	14 years 19 years	Home of Mr. Holmes	98/3040	Mary Holmes	20 July 1895	Rev. O. F. Jones
288	22 July 1895	Andrew R. Johns Martha Mary Butler	Frederick Johns Martha Mary Butler 💍 1898/3768	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 23	Wellington Wellington	23 years 23 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/2989		22 July 1895	Registrar
289	23 July 1895	Arthur William Edwards Alice Maud Mabey	Arthur William Edwards Alice Maud Mabey 💍 1898/2992	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 21	Mungaroa Upper Hutt	22 years 21 years	Home of Mr. Church, Lower Hutt	98/3054		23 July 1895	Rev. Andrew Gray
290	25 July 1895	Thomas Henry Coward Blanche Maud Candy	Thomas Henry Coward Blanche Ward Cundy 💍 1898/5090	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 19	Wellington Wellington	19 years 19 years	St. Thomas Church, Wellington	98/4983	Henry Richard, father	25 July 1895	Rev. O. Fitzgerald
291	25 July 1895	Henry William Stephens Emma Jane Robinson	Harry Williams Stephens Emma Jane Dobbinson 💍 1898/2488	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 25	Wellington Wellington	28 years 25 years	Home of Mr. Jupp, 132 Willis Street, Wellington	98/3007		25 July 1895	Rev. Wm. Baumber
292	26 July 1895	Walter George Green Mary Ellen Atkins	Walter George Green May Ellen Atkins 💍 1898/4281	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 21	Wellington Wellington	20 years 21 years	Home of Mr. McDonald, 21 Hopper Street	98/3657		26 July 1895	Rev. John Dawson
293	26 July 1895	Edward Joseph Barber Margaret Eyre	Edward Joseph Barber Margaret Eyre 💍 1898/5089	Bachelor Spinster	Dyer	32 26	Wellington Wellington	25 years 26 years	St. Thomas Church, Wellington	98/4982		26 July 1895	Rev. O. Fitzgerald
294	27 July 1895	George Howard Jane McLelland	George Howard Jane Mulholland 💍 1898/2479	Bachelor Spinster	Bellmonger	33 27	Petone Petone	27 years 27 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	98/2990		27 July 1895	Registrar
295	27 July 1895	James Charles Solomon Lydia Walker		Bachelor Spinster	Draper Saleswoman	31 23	Spring Grove, Nelson Sydney	19 years 23 years	Home of Mr. Thomas, 61 Willis Street, Wellington	98/3044		27 July 1895	Rev. A. F. Turner
296	29 July 1895	Robert Howard Eagles Maud Grace Richards	Robert Howard Taylor Maud Grace Richards 💍 1898/3001	Bachelor Spinster	Magistrate	25 20	Wellington Wellington	25 years 20 years	Home of Mr. Richards, 77 Adelaide Road, Wellington	98/3045	Frederick Richards, father	2 August 1895	Rev. 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).