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 155

District of Hastings Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Robert Brathwaite

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	Thomas Prebble Rosa Lamson	Thomas Prebble Rosa Samson 💍 1899/389	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	21 17	Hastings Hastings	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office	99/347	C. Y. Lamson, Father	4 January 1899	Robert Brathwaite
2	23 January 1899	Henry Bosher Phoebe Elizabeth Weaver	Henry Bosher Phoebe Elizabeth Weaver 💍 1899/412	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller	33 21	Hastings Hastings	3 days 1 year	St Luke's Havelock	99/352		23 January 1899	Rev. Canon S. Hill
3	25 January 1899	William Blackie Mary Margaret Elizabeth McKay	William Blackie Mary Margaret Elizabeth McKay 💍 1899/391	Bachelor Spinster	Horsebreaker	22 19	Hastings Hastings	1 year 2 weeks	Registrars Office	99/348	John D. McKay, Father	25 January 1899	Robert Brathwaite
4	28 January 1899	Hector John Smith Gertrude Mary Nelson	Hector John Smith Gertrude Mary Nelson 💍 1899/421	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	28 20	Hastings Hastings	20 years 17 years	St Matthews Hastings	99/355	William Nelson, Father	28 January 1899	Archdeacon S. Williams
5	30 January 1899	William Joseph Wells Susan Merritt	William Joseph Wells Susan Merritt 💍 1899/419	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 27	Hastings Tomoana	8 years 10 months	St Matthews Hastings	99/353		30 January 1899	Rev. John Hobbs
6	6 February 1899	George King Edith Emily Springall	George King Edith Emily Springall 💍 1899/392	Bachelor Spinster	Surveying	29 22	Hastings, H Bay Hastings	3 months 6 weeks	Registrars Office	99/349		6 February 1899	Robert Brathwaite
7	6 February 1899	William Alfred Weaver Honora Florence Whelan	William Alfred Weaver Honora Florence Whelan 💍 1899/4251	Bachelor Spinster	Wool Expert	25 23	Hastings Hastings	2 years 6 months	Roman Catholic Church	99/52/3		6 February 1899	Rev Father Smythe
8	8 February 1899	Lionel John Baker Lucy Ada Wells	Lionel John Baker Lucy Ada Wells 💍 1899/420	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 18	Hastings Hastings	4 years 18 years	St Matthews Hastings	99/354	Florence Hayes, Mother	8 February 1899	Rev John Hobbs
9	8 February 1899	Thomas Campbell Ngahina Tahana		Bachelor Spinster	Half Cast Native	28 24	Paki Paki Hastings	3 months 3 months	Registrars Office			8 February 1899	Robert Brathwaite
10	10 February 1899	William Robert Peene Edith Sherwood	William Robert Peene Edith Sherwood 💍 1899/1711	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	23 24	Havelock Havelock	3 days 24 years	Presbyterian Church Havelock	99/1909		10 February 1899	Rev. Alex Whyte

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).