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 149

District of Waitara Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar W D Howe

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
182	5 January 1899	Josiah Shore Agnes Moore	Josiah Shore Agnes Moore 💍 1899/398	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic Duties	25 22	Waitara Waitara	2 Weeks 14 days	In the office of Registrar of Marriages	99/334		5 January 1899	Registrar of marriages Waitara
183	19 January 1899	William Ernest Hay Mary ann Simpson	William Ernest Hay Mary Ann Simpson 💍 1899/381	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic Duties	26 23	Waitara Waitara	20 years 14 months	In the house of Mrs Hay - West Quay	99/338		19 January 1899	Rev F W Walker
184	9 February 1899	Arthur George Gaston Harriet Florence May Johnson	Arthur George Patton Harriet Florence May Johnson 💍 1899/5377	Widower Spinster	Greaser Domestic Duties	28 21	Waitara Waitara	16 years 17 years	St Johns Church	99/339		9 February 1899	Rev F W Walker
185	18 February 1899	John Burton Eliot Alice Denford Jones	John Burton Elliot Alice Denford Jones 💍 1899/399	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 26	Awakino Mokau	10 years 9 years	In the office of Registrar of Marriages	99/335		18 February 1899	Registrar of marriages Waitara
186	27 February 1899	Charles Richard Brown Sarah Graham	Charles Richard Brown Sarah Graham 💍 1899/400	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic Duties	42 29	Waitara Waitara	3 days 28 years	House of Mr J Graham Waitara W	99/336		27 February 1899	Rev W G Thomas
187	27 March 1899	Richard Cantell Fancy Paul	Richard Cantell Nancy Paul 💍 1899/1817	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 24	Lepperton Lepperton	12 months 24 years	The Wesleyan Chapel Lepperton	99/1669		27 March 1899	Rev H W Williams
188	27 March 1899	Thomas Paul Jessie Catherine Wells	Thomas Paul Jessie Catherine Wells 💍 1899/1818	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	26 27	Lepperton Lepperton	26 years 26 years	The Wesleyan Chapel Lepperton	99/1670		27 March 1899	Rev H W Williams
189	29 March 1899	William Bain Gordon Glassford Marion Florence Lora Willison	William Bain Gordon Glassford Marion Florence Nora Willison 💍 1899/1819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	35 19	Urenui Urenui	10 years 18 years	In the house of Mrs Willison Urenui	99/1671	George A F Willison Father	29 March 1899	Rev F W Walker
190	11 April 1899	Arthur Joseph Chard Elwina Rasmussen	Arthur Joseph Chand Elvina Rasmussen 💍 1899/380	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	21 19	Waitara Waitara	15 years 8 years	In the house of Mrs Rasmussen	99/337	Mary Rasmussen Mother	11 April 1899	Rev W G Thomas

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).