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 196

District of Feilding Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar John Finlay Martin

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
557	3 January 1899	James Simpson Sarah Ann Hollis	James Simpson Sarah Ann Hollis 💍 1899/483	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	27 23	Feilding Feilding	1 week 1 week	at the residence of the Groom Denbigh Street Feilding	99/403		3 January 1899	J. W. Hayward
558	11 January 1899	Albert Edward Foster Wilhelmina Mary Haggarty	Albert Edward Foster Wilhelmina Mary Haggarty 💍 1899/371	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	26 18	Feilding Feilding	23 years 5 days	Registrars Office Feilding	99/401	F. O. Haggarty Father	11 January 1899	J. F. Martin
559	24 January 1899	Fred Purcell Esther Elizabeth Tidd	Fred Purcell Esther Elisabeth Tidd 💍 1899/487	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	27 21	Waituna West Feilding	12 years 2 months	at the residence of the Grooms mother Cunninghams	99/405		24 January 1899	L. H. F. Blaess
560	13 March 1899	Jesse Samuel Milson Ellen Selina Browne	Jesse Samuel Milson Ellen Selina Browne 💍 1899/488	Widower Spinster	Bookseller Housekeeper	33 24	Feilding Feilding	24 years 4 years	at the residence of Edward Martin Railway Street Feilding	99/406		13 March 1899	C. C. Harrison
561	15 March 1899	Joseph Gould Charlotte North	Joseph Gould Charlotte North 💍 1899/1102	Widower Spinster	Draper Milliner	33 25	Feilding Feilding	15 years 6 weeks	Primitive Methodist Church Feilding	99/1161		15 March 1899	James Cocker
562	15 March 1899	Frederick Edward Pawson Ada May Wiley	Frederick Edward Dawson Ada May Wiley 💍 1899/472	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	26 21	Feilding Feilding	20 years 1 year	Registrars Office Feilding	99/402	John Pawson Father	15 March 1899	J. F. Martin
563	18 March 1899	David Henry Browning Cecilia Harriett Stunell	David Henry Browning Cecilia Harriett Sturnell 💍 1899/486	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	25 19	Glenwood Feilding	19 years 18 months	at the residence of the Brides father Feilding	99/404	Henry Stunell Father	18 March 1899	Joseph Birkenshaw
564	22 March 1899	Frank Paul Fanny Worsfold	Frank Paul Fanny Worsfold 💍 1899/489	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 23	Feilding Feilding	4 days 4 days	Church of England Feilding	99/407		22 March 1899	A. S. Innes Jones

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).