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 126

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar C. E. Nicholas

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	Arthur Fyfe Esther Ann Dodd	Arthur Fyfe Esther Ann Dodd 💍 1899/675	Bachelor Spinster	miner	27 22	Hurerenui W Whangarei	2 years 8 months	office registrar, Whangarei	99/274		4 January 1899	The Registrar
2	16 January 1899	Peter Frederick Hansen Margaret Sutherland	Peter Frederick Hansen Margaret Sutherland 💍 1899/676	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 19	Hurerenui Hurerenui	11y 12y	office registrar, Whangarei	99/275	Geo Sutherland, Father	16 January 1899	The Registrar
3	18 January 1899	George Hodgson Flora Chisholm	George Hodgson Flora Chisholm 💍 1899/258	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 24	Ruatangata Whangarei	25 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Whangarei	99/278		18 January 1899	Rev G Y Roby
4	21 January 1899	William John Hockin Annie Avice Wilson	William John Hockin Annie Avice Wilson 💍 1899/273	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 28	Waikuku Mangatapere	20 years 10 years	residence Brides Parents, Mangatapere	99/281		21 January 1899	Rev O R Hewlett
5	13 February 1899	George Kenneth Ruddell Annie Gough	George Kenneth Ruddell Annie Gough 💍 1899/677	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 21	Mangarahia Patana	4 years 21 years	office registrar, Whangarei	99/276		13 February 1899	The Registrar
6	20 February 1899	George Whitehead May Morfett	George Whitehead May Morfett 💍 1899/678	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	24 19	Purua Purua	4 months 10 years	office registrar, Whangarei	99/277	Geo Morfett, Father	20 February 1899	The Registrar
7	20 February 1899	Ewen McLean Johanna McInnes	Ewen McLean Johanna McInnes 💍 1899/1348	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 28	Otonga Kaurihohore	8 years 28 years	Presbyterian Church, Kaurikohore	99/1143		20 February 1899	Rev J H Hawkes MA
8	20 February 1899	Charles McKinnon Jane Simpson	Charles McKinnon Jane Simpson 💍 1899/269	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 22	Whangarei Whangarei	7 years	residence brides parents, Whangarei	99/279		20 February 1899	Rev G Y Roby
9	20 March 1899	Oliver Trimming Emily May Culham Smith	Oliver Trimming Emily May Culham Smith 💍 1899/274	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 28	Otahuhu Whangarei	6 years 28 years	residence brides parents, Whangarei	99/282		20 March 1899	Rev L L Cubbitt
10	24 March 1899	John Finlayson Eleanor Clotworthy	John Finlayson Eleanor Clotworthy 💍 1899/272	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 26	Whangarei Whangarei	34 years 26 years	residence Brides parents, Whangarei	99/280		24 March 1899	Rev G Y Roby

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).