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 145

District of Stratford Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Sydney Henry James

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	13 January 1899	Charles Blackmore Walsh Mary Savage	Charles Blackmore Walsh Mary Savage 💍 1899/346	Widower Spinster	Butcher	38 23	Midhirst Midhirst	5 months 4 months	The Residence of Charles Blackmore Walsh, Mountain road, Midhirst	99/326		13 January 1899	Rev. S. Cossum, Primitive Methodist
2	24 January 1899	Morell Stanley Deighton Ethel Charlotte Nalintine	Morrell Stanley Deighton Ethel Charlotte Valintine 💍 1899/342	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 30	Mangaweka Eltham	4 years 5 years	The Church of England at Eltham	99/323		24 January 1899	Rev. C. W. J. Mc Connel, Church of England
3	30 January 1899	William Herbert Sangster Maria Jane Robertson	William Henry Sangster Maria Jane Robertson 💍 1899/390	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 18	Midhirst Midhirst	18 months 18 years	The residence of Henry Robertson at Midhirst	99/328	Henry Robertson, father	30 January 1899	Rev. G. Clement, Primitive Methodist
4	4 February 1899	Albert Treabes Annie Mischewski	Albert Treabes Annie Mischewski 💍 1899/3099	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 16	Midhirst Midhirst	20 years 16 years	The Roman Catholic Church at Stratford	99/3096	John Mischewski, father	4 February 1899	Father Wm Johnson, Roman Catholic
5	11 February 1899	John Wyatt Gardner Florence Louisa Reed	John Wyatt Gardner Florence Louisa Reed 💍 1899/344	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Toko Stratford	6 years 15 years	The residence of James Edward Reed, Pembroke road, Stratford	99/324		11 February 1899	Rev. A. D. Boyes, Church of England
6	16 February 1899	Samuel Lord Lily Susan Tubman Myhill	Samuel Lord Lilly Susan Tubman Myhill 💍 1899/343	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Eltham Eltham	3 years 17 years	The Office of the Registrar at Stratford	99/322	George Myhill, father	16 February 1899	S H James, 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).