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 238

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Frederick William Mansfield

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
41	27 January 1899	Charles Davies Ida Isabel Alice Day	Charles Davies Ada Isabel Alice Day 💍 1899/707	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer Salvation Army Officer	35 27	Marton Dunedin	6 wks 1 Mo.	Salvation Army Citadel, Vivian St, Wellington	99/578		30 January 1899	Major Joseph Birkenshaw
42	27 January 1899	James Augustine Tuthill Louisa Mary Drinkwater	James Augustins Tuthill Louisa Mary Drinkwater 💍 1899/467	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	38 24	Wellington Wellington	6 yrs 3 yrs	St Marys of the Angels, Boulcott St, Wellington	99/552		27 January 1899	Revd Thomas Delany
43	28 January 1899	James Albert Bentley Alice Kingdon	James Albert Bentley Alice Kingdon 💍 1899/761	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	25 21	Petone Petone	1 Mo. 9 yrs	St Davids Church, Petone	99/681		28 January 1899	Revd Alex Thomson
44	28 January 1899	William Gardiner Katherine McKenzie	William Gardiner Katherine McKenzie 💍 1899/820	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Tailoress	34 23	Wellington Wellington	9 Mos 4 yrs	Residence of Mr James Doyle, Dock St, Wellington	99/599		28 January 1899	Revd Wm Shirer
45	30 January 1899	Albert Dawson Hulda Christina Janson	Albert Dawson Hilda Christina Janson 💍 1899/691	Widower Spinster	Coal Dealer	40 21	Wellington Creswick, Wellington	5 yrs 21 yrs	Residence of Albert Dawson, 67 Riddiford St, Wellington	99/586		30 January 1899	Revd H. B. Redstone
46	30 January 1899	Edward Johnson Theresa Alexander	Edward Johnson Theresa Alexander 💍 1899/5430	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist Teacher	28 26	Kilbirnie, Wellington Kilbirnie, Wellington	28 yrs 20 yrs	Trinity Church, Wellington	99/698		30 January 1899	Revd. C. C. Lawry
47	31 January 1899	Harry Wilson Emily Jane Noble	Harry Wilson Emily Jane Noble 💍 1899/5438	Bachelor Spinster	Jockey	23 22	Wellington Feilding	5 yrs 22 yrs	Residence of Mr M. J. Ashbolt, 26, Frederick St, Wellington	99/565		31 January 1899	Revd John Dawson
48	1 February 1899	Archibald John Eppleth Mary Louisa Pearson	Archibald John Epplett Mary Louisa Pearson 💍 1899/708	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Cook	24 26	Miramar, Wellington Wellington	2 yrs 2 1/2 yrs	Residence of Ensign Lomas, 27 Daniel St, Wellington	99/579		1 February 1899	Major Joseph Birkenshaw
49	1 February 1899	James Albert Whisker Elizabeth Anna McCutcheon	James Albert Whisker Elizabeth Anna McCutcheon 💍 1899/827	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 20	Petone Wellington	9 yrs 5 yrs	Residence of Mr Wm McCutcheon, "Bath House", Roxburgh St, Wellington	99/600	Wm McCutcheon, Father	1 February 1899	Revd Wm Shirer
50	2 February 1899	James Richardson Brimer Maude Parker Williamson	James Richardson Brimer Maude Parker Williamson 💍 1899/547	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 32	Wellington Wellington	14 yrs 1 1/2 yrs	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/514		2 February 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar

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).