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 042

District of Dargaville Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar J Hay

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
1	4 January 1899	Frederick Mitchell Stanaway Isabella Maynard	Frederick Mitchell Stanaway Isabella Maynard 💍 1899/443	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic duties	22 32	Dargaville Dargaville	12 years 12 years	Registrars office Dargaville	99/177		4 January 1899	J. Hay Registrar
2	9 January 1899	Joseph William Paton Emily McDowell	Joseph William Paton Emily McDowell 💍 1899/513	Bachelor Spinster	Bush Contractor Domestic duties	32 20	Dargaville Dargaville	12 years 20 years	Residence Brides Parents	99/183	William John Dowell (Father)	9 January 1899	Rev S J Gibson Wesleyan
3	14 January 1899	Patrick Roland Langton Mary Frawley	Patrick Roland Langton Mary Frawley 💍 1899/514	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	20 22	Dargaville Dargaville	20 years 1 year	Residence Bridegrooms Parents	99/184	Peter Langton (Father)	14 January 1899	Father John Smears Catholic
4	6 February 1899	Albert Valentine Ernest Rickcord Emma Summers Barlow	Valentine Albert Ernest Rickcord Emma Summers Barlow 💍 1899/510	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	27 19	Mangatu Mangatu	8 years 5 years	Church of England Dargaville	99/180		6 February 1899	Rev A P Beck Church England
5	15 February 1899	Attila Wilson Clara Georgina Forgie	Attila Wilson Clara Georgina Forgie 💍 1899/493	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic duties	33 21	Dargaville Dargaville	15 years	Registrars Office Dargaville	99/178		15 February 1899	J Hay Registrar
6	27 February 1899	Samuel Sidney Campbell Zoe Alma Cook	Samuel Sidney Campbell Zoe Alma Cook 💍 1899/511	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Domestic duties	31 22	Mangawhare Mangawhare	7 years 22 years	English Church Dargaville	99/181		27 February 1899	Rev A J Beck Church England
7	6 March 1899	John Charles Shaw Rose Eva Tonks	John Charles Shaw Rose Eva Tonks 💍 1899/512	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic duties	23 20	Kaihu Kaihu	2 years 12 months	J B Smiths Private Residence	99/182	Isaac Tonks (Father)	6 March 1899	Rev A J Beck Church England
8	18 March 1899	Joseph Dunn Louisa Pritchard	Joseph Dunn Louisa Pritchard 💍 1899/504	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic duties	35 22	Dargaville Dargaville	14 years 5 weeks	Registrars Office Dargaville	99/179		18 March 1899	J Hay 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).