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 108

District of Thames Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Edward Honiss

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	5 January 1899	Hugh McQuirk McAuley Isabella Thompson	Hugh McQuirk McAuley Isabella Thompson 💍 1899/256	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic Servant	32 26	Thames Thames	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames	99/236		5 January 1899	Edward Honiss, Registrar
2	24 January 1899	Harry Wilson Elizabeth Helen Bulmer Davis	Harry Wilson Elizabeth Helen Bulmer Davis 💍 1899/236	Bachelor Spinster	Stud Groom None	37 29	Thames Thames	3 days 4 months	St George's Church, Mackay St, Thames	99/239		24 January 1899	Revd T. O'Callaghan, Church of England
3	30 January 1899	Thomas Westall Brough Letitia Phillis Cecelia Williams	Thomas Westall Brough Letitia Phyllis Cecilia Williams 💍 1899/237	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor None	22 24	Thames Thames	20 months 24 years	The Pacific Hotel, Brown St, Thames	99/240		30 January 1899	Revd T. O'Callaghan, Church of England
4	4 February 1899	Harry Hutchinson Marianne English	Harry Hutchinson Marianne English 💍 1899/257	Bachelor Widow	Commercial Traveller None	57 55	Thames Thames	1 day 1 day	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Thames	99/237		7 February 1899	Edward Honiss, Registrar
5	20 February 1899	James Kenney Jenkin Eliza Ann Johns	James Benny Jenkin Eliza Ann Johns 💍 1899/241	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	19 17	Thames Thames	19 years 17 years	The Dwelling of Mary Annie Johns, Williamson St, Thames	99/244	Rebecca Jenkin, Mother; Mary Annie Johns, Mother	20 February 1899	Revd S. J. Serpell, Wesleyan
6	20 February 1899	Thomas Johnstone Fanny Thomas	Thomas Johnstone Fanny Thomas 💍 1899/238	Bachelor Widow	Tobacconist Boarding House Keeper	55 50	Thames Thames	30 years 25 years	The Dwelling of Fanny Thomas, Albert St, Thames	99/241		20 February 1899	Revd T. O'Callaghan, Church of England

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).