Intentions to Marry, 1899 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840415, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington (now located in the National Library reading room), September 5 2025

1899 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 012

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Thomas Culpan

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
59	24 January 1899	Oswald Allen Lillian Baker	Oswald Allen Lillian Baker 💍 1899/224	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 20	Auckland Auckland	9 mos. 20 yrs.	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/23	Robert Baker, Father	24 January 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
60	24 January 1899	Robert Garton Janet Hughes	Robert Gaston Janet Hughes 💍 1899/306	Widower Widow	Settler Confectioner	58 60	Auckland Auckland	36 yrs. 33 yrs.	House of Mr. G. Fell, Wellington St., Auckland	99/68		24 January 1899	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
61	24 January 1899	George Daniel Bevin Maud Lucy Russell		Bachelor Spinster	Groom Waitress	28 23	Auckland Auckland	28 yrs. 14 yrs.	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/22		24 January 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
62	24 January 1899	Andrew Henry Collins Annie Paul	Andrew Henry Collins Annie Paul 💍 1899/226	Bachelor Spinster	Torpedo-man Housemaid	23 25	Auckland Auckland	8 mos. 8 yrs.	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/25		24 January 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
63	25 January 1899	Charles Egbert Raikes Walter Bessie Caroline Newson	Charles Egbert Raikes Walter Bessie Caroline Newson 💍 1899/222	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 20	Raglan Raglan	3 yrs. 4 yrs.	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/21	Charles Alfred William Walter, father; Charles Morris Newson, father	25 January 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
64	26 January 1899	James Albert Edward Louden Phoebe Cross	James Albert Edward Louden Phoebe Cross 💍 1899/190	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	21 17	Auckland Auckland	21 yrs. 4 yrs.	House of Father of Bride, Ponsonby	99/142	Thomas Cross, father	26 January 1899	Rev. W. A. Sinclair, Wesleyan
65	26 January 1899	Josiah Elcombe Charlotte Jane Bartlett	Josiah Elcombe Charlotte Jane Bartlett 💍 1899/146	Bachelor Spinster	Seedsman Photographer	37 26	Auckland Auckland	4 yrs. 26 yrs.	House of Mother of Bride, Franklin Road	99/96		26 January 1899	Rev. H. R. Dewsbury, Wesleyan
66	27 January 1899	Thomas Ernest Palmer Mabel Evelyn Whelan	Thomas Ernest Palmer Mabel Evelyn Whalan 💍 1899/1344	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 24	Waihi Waihi	4 1/2 yrs. 2 yrs.	All Saints' Church, Ponsonby	99/136		27 January 1899	Rev. W. Calder, Church of England

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).