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 120

District of Waihi Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Albert Pamell

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
73	7 January 1899	Alfred Panther Alice Emma Wilson	Alfred Butler Alice Emma Wilson 💍 1899/670	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 22	Waihi Waihi	4 years 7 days	St Johns Church of England Waihi	99/270		7 January 1899	Revd W H Wilson
74	18 January 1899	Richard John Coad Annie Tyrrell	Richard John Page Annie Tyrrall 💍 1899/665	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	Waihi Waihi	2 years 6 months 3 months	Private residence of Mr James Page Waihi	99/265		18 January 1899	Revd William Beckett
75	25 January 1899	John H G Bankeys Elizabeth Selenia Lees	John McCauley Elizabeth Selenia Lees 💍 1899/664	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Waitress	21 23	Waihi Waihi	8 years 6 weeks	Registrar's Office Waihi	99/264		28 January 1899	Registrar
76	11 February 1899	William Smith Agnes Durburgh Jack	William Smith Agnes Dryburgh Jack 💍 1899/666	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 28	Waitekauri Waitekauri	3 years 6 weeks	Private residence of Mr Sydney Smith Waitekauri	99/266		11 February 1899	Revd William Beckett
77	11 February 1899	John Ambrose Conneley Lucy Maud Snelgar	John Ambrose Connelly Lucy Maud Snelgar 💍 1899/669	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 20	Waihi Waihi	2 years 13 months	Roman Catholic Church Waihi	99/269	John Groves Snelgar, Father	11 February 1899	Revd James J Hackett
78	21 February 1899	William John McKama Alice Mabel Birnie	William John McKenna Alice Mabel Birnie 💍 1899/671	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 18	Waihi Waihi	15 years 4 years	Private residence of Mrs Birnie Waihi	99/271	George Birnie, Father	21 February 1899	Revd W. H. Wilson
79	25 February 1899	Herbert Charles Spalding Edith Emma Collins	Herbert Charles Spalding Edith Emma Collins 💍 1899/667	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 19	Waihi Waihi	8 months 8 months	Private residence of Mr Herbert Charles Spalding Waihi	99/267	Charles Collins, Father	25 February 1899	Revd William Beckett
80	19 March 1899	John Smeaton Ada Carter	John Smeaton Ada Carter 💍 1899/668	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 24	Waihi Waihi	3 years 3 years	Private residence of Mr John Carter Waihi	99/268		19 March 1899	Revd Samuel J. Purnell

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).