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 116

District of Tokatoka Quarter ending 31 March 1899

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	21 January 1899	Michael Davern Annie Margaret Boyed Ellis	Michael Wavern Annie Margaret Boyed Ellis 💍 1899/672	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand Dressmaker	31 25	Tekopuru Tekopuru	19 years 10 days	Residence of Thos Smith Tekopuru	99/254	21 January 1899	Revd W Smiers
2	11 February 1899	Arthur Brownsprove Hart Hannah Rebecca Day	Arthur Bromsgrove Hart Hannah Rebecca Day 💍 1899/682	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	21 18	Aratapu Aratapu	2 years 13 years	Anglican Church Aratapu	99/258	11 February 1899	Revd A J Beck
3	2 March 1899	William James Curnow Mary Frances Beasley	William James Curnow Mary Francis Beasley 💍 1899/684	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Okahu Arapohue	9 years 23 yrs	Anglican Parsonage Tekopuru	99/260	2 March 1899	Revd A J Beck
4	6 March 1899	Charles Sills Julia Gertrude Beasley	Charles Sills Julia Gertrude Beasley 💍 1899/683	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	32 22	Okahu Okahu	25 yrs 2 yrs	Residence of Simeon Sills Okahu	99/259	6 March 1899	Revd A J Beck
5	7 March 1899	Lionel Thomas Kitching Barbara Gilmour Brown	Lionel Thomas Kitching Barbara Gilmour Brown 💍 1899/679	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 23	Mititai Aratapu	8 yrs 23 yrs	Residence of James Brown Aratapu	99/255	7 March 1899	Revd S J Gibson
6	13 March 1899	Albert Mark Sandford Catherine Maud Thomas	Albert Mark Sanford Catherine Maud Thomas 💍 1899/680	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 18	Red Hill Red Hill	14 yrs 8 years	Wesleyan Church Red Hill Tekopuru	99/256	13 March 1899	Revd S J Gibson
7	29 March 1899	William Harrison Florence Isabell Phelan	William Harrison Florence Isabel Phelan 💍 1899/681	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 20	Aratapu Aratapu	9 years 19 yrs	Residence of John Phelan Aratapu	99/257	29 March 1899	Revd S J Gibson

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).