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 014

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
75	1 February 1899	Emmanuel Schofield Ellen Barber	Emmanuel Scholfield Ellen Barber 💍 1899/40	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	27 21	Auckland Auckland	2 years 3 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/26		1 February 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
76	1 February 1899	Arthur Dixon Galbraith Alice Amelia Marjory Hastings	Arthur Dixon Galbraith Alice Amelia Marjory Hastings 💍 1899/172	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Teller	22 22	Thames Thames	1.5 years 2 weeks	Congregational Church, Beresford St., Auckland	99/123		1 February 1899	Rev. J. Parker, Congregational Independent
77	1 February 1899	William Henry Billing Emily Turner	William Henry Billing Emily Turner 💍 1899/60	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Machinist	21 24	Auckland Auckland	12 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/30		1 February 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
78	2 February 1899	John Strickett Ruby Winifred Ackland	John Strickett Ruby Winifred Ackland 💍 1899/61	Bachelor Spinster	Decorator	28 20	Auckland Auckland	12 years 12 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/31	Nancy Esther Ackland, mother	2 February 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar
79	2 February 1899	Edgar Bernard Brewster Jane Greenland	Edgar Bernard Brewster Jane Greenland 💍 1899/174	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	23 18	Auckland Auckland	13 years 16 years	House of Father of Bride, 10 Hargreaves St, Auckland	99/125	George Greenland, father	2 February 1899	Rev. J. Sharp, Primitive Methodist
80	3 February 1899	Frederick James Dalley Mercy Ellen Williams	Frederick James Dalley Mercy Ellen Williams 💍 1899/450 Frederick Stubley Gertrude Ellen Williams 💍 1899/590	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 22	Chelsea Chelsea	6 months 1 week	Wesleyan Church, Pitt St., Auckland	99/161		3 February 1899	Rev. C. E. Beecroft, Wesleyan
81	4 February 1899	Elias Jorginius Stensness Emily Sophia Belcher	Elias Jorginius Stensness Emily Sophia Belcher 💍 1899/58	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 19	Wayby Hoteo North	4 years 19 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	99/28	George Belcher, father	4 February 1899	T. Culpan, Deputy Registrar

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 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).