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 204

District of Huntaville Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar J. A. Norris

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
128	7 January 1899	Edwin Arthur Rix Mary Horn	Edwin Arthur Rider Mary Horn 💍 1899/478	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	24 21	Huntaville Huntaville	4 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church	99/416		7 January 1899	D. Martin
129	25 January 1899	William Bastian Emily Ryder	William Strahan Emily Rendell 💍 1899/479 William Searle Emily Palmer 💍 1899/798	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	41 26	Danyavaki Danyavaki	2 months 4 months	Presbyterian Church	99/417		25 January 1899	D. Martin
130	27 January 1899	Henry Chesh Florence White	Henry Chase Florence White 💍 1899/481	Bachelor Spinster	Station manager Domestic	28 18	Danyavosber Danyavosber	6 years 4 years	Residence of Parent	99/419		27 January 1899	D. Martin
131	30 January 1899	Reuben Wray Elizabeth Gettings	Reuben Wigg Elizabeth Gerbing 💍 1899/480	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	27 17	Danyavosber Danyavosber	6 years 6 years	Residence of Tilby Gettings	99/418	Tilby Gettings, father	30 January 1899	D. Martin
132	7 February 1899	John Ludovic Knutt Elizabeth Johnson	John Ludovic Knuth Elizabeth Johnson 💍 1899/482	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Domestic	22 33	Huntaville Huntaville	6 years 6 years	Residence of John Knutt	99/420		7 February 1899	D. Martin
133	2 March 1899	Herbert Parker Mary Catherine Floyd	Herbert Parker Mary Catherine Floyd 💍 1899/4722	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	26 25	Utiku Utiku	5 months 5 months	Residence of George Floyd	second certificate issued, see December quarter		2 March 1899	H. B. Blomfield
134	6 March 1899	Arthur Hammersley Alice Ann Hudson		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	30 29	Pohonuiatane England	6 years 6 years	Church of England	99/421		6 March 1899	Jn. Cornish
135	29 March 1899	John Fresh Elsie Whiting Pope	John Fraser Celia Whiten Pope 💍 1899/485	Bachelor Spinster	Farm laborer Domestic	29 20	Mangipongo Oata	6 months 6 years	Residence of Roger Pope	99/422	Roger Pope, father	29 March 1899	W. Harris

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).