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 157

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar S Jago

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	2 January 1899	Samuel Adams Elsie May Hutchinson	Samuel Adams Elsie May Hutchinson 💍 1899/405	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	30 21	Upper Thames Napier Napier	6 yrs 7 yrs	Residence of Brides father Miller St Napier	99/363		2 January 1899	Rev H N J Miller Congregational
2	4 January 1899	Alfred Cheer Norah Mackay	Alfred Cheer Norah MacKay 💍 1899/5399	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Farming	29 32	Clive Clive	16 yrs 6 yrs	Residence of Bride Wha Rata	99/524		4 January 1899	Rev P. J. Smyth R C Priest
3	14 January 1899	John White Clara Indiana Llewellyn	John White Clara Indiana Llewelyn 💍 1899/1116	Bachelor Spinster	Artist Artist	29 25	Napier Napier	4 days 4 days	Cathedral Napier	99/1151		14 January 1899	Dean Hovill Ch of England
4	16 January 1899	James McHardy Rose Madden	James McHardy Rose Madden 💍 1899/3069	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Housemaid	34 29	Moawhango Napier	2 yrs 9 yrs	Roman Catholic Chapel Napier	99/2757		16 January 1899	Rev C. E. Bell R C Priest
5	18 January 1899	Robert Hanna Isabella Ann McKenzie	Robert Hanna Isabella Ann McKenzie 💍 1899/423	Widower Spinster	Platelayer Domestic	42 25	Farndon Farndon	10 yrs 2 Mths	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	99/357		18 January 1899	S. J. Jago Regr
6	21 January 1899	John Hope Agnes Down	John Hope Agnes Down 💍 1899/1117	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Teacher	22 33	Napier Napier	6 yrs 19 yrs	Cathedral Napier	99/1152		21 January 1899	Bishop Williams C. of England
7	26 January 1899	Wm Johnston Alice Victoria Davis	William Johnston Alice Victoria Davies 💍 1899/424	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic	30 23	Napier Hastings Napier	4 yrs 1 year 3 days	Office of the Regr of Marriages Napier	99/358		26 January 1899	S J Jago Regr
8	24 January 1899	Frederick Wm Alfred Gardiner Louisa Helm Boyd	Frederick William Alfred Gardiner Louisa Ellen Boyd 💍 1899/406	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	22 18	Western Spit Western Spit	3 Years 14 Years	Ch of England at Spit	99/364	Thomas Boyd Father	27 January 1899	Rev O Dean Ch of England

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).