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 240

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
61	9 February 1899	William Francis Blackwell Mary Elliot Bee	William Frances Blackwell Mary Elliot Bee 💍 1899/782	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	33 26	Wellington Wellington	2 yrs 6 Mos	Residence of Mrs Roddah, 33A Tasman St, Wellington	99/678		9 February 1899	Revd Wm Shirer
62	8 February 1899	Robert Chung Yong Hee Ellen Elizabeth Ferrick	Robert Chung Yong Hee Ellen Elizabeth Ferrick 💍 1899/762	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 22	Wellington Wellington	10 yrs 3 yrs	Residence of Mr Yan Fooh, Petone	99/682		8 February 1899	Revd Alex Thomson
63	9 February 1899	Philip Wilton Martha Jane Mason	Philip Wilton Martha Jane Mason 💍 1899/694	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Wellington Wellington	27 yrs 25 yrs	The Baptist Church, Brooklyn	99/589		9 February 1899	Revd Chas. Dallaston
64	9 February 1899	Oliver Jacob Young Elizabeth Richmond	Oliver Jacob Young Elizabeth Richmond 💍 1899/5440	Bachelor Widow	Baker	27 23	Wellington Wellington	8 Mos 9 yrs	Primitive Methodist Church, Webb St, Wellington	99/567		9 February 1899	Revd. Jno. Dawson
65	10 February 1899	Thomas Gadsby Mary Adams	Thomas Gadsby Mary Adams 💍 1899/549	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	35 35	Te Nui Te Nui	4 yrs 16 yrs	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/516		10 February 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
66	10 February 1899	James Strachan Greig Rose McCann	James Strachan Greig Rose McCann 💍 1899/551	Widower Divorcée order made absolute 24/3/97	Merchant	49 31	Stratford Nelson	6 yrs 31 yrs	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/577		10 February 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
67	11 February 1899	Michael Clark Margaret Cussen	Michael Clark Margaret Cussen 💍 1899/461	Widower Spinster	Engineer Teacher	57 41	Wellington Wellington	28 yrs 1 yr	St Mary's Schoolroom, Hill St, Wellington	99/570		11 February 1899	Revd. John Holley
68	11 February 1899	Walter James Helyer Tonks Christina Shields Brackenridge	Walter James Helyer Tonks Christina Shields Blackeridge 💍 1899/783	Bachelor Spinster	Monumental Mason	21 21	Wellington Wellington	21 yrs 7 yrs	Residence of Mrs Jas. Brackenridge, Barker St, Wellington	99/679		11 February 1899	Revd. Wm Shirer
69	13 February 1899	Thomas Kemp Mildred May Dodd	Thomas Kemp Mildred May Todd 💍 1899/552	Divorced Decree absolute 8/12/98 Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	36 28	Wellington Wellington	14 yrs 14 yrs	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/578		10 March 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
70	13 February 1899	Charles Edward Sterling Maud May Cate	Charles Edward Sterling Maud May Cate 💍 1899/5437	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	23 17	Petone Petone	3 yrs 13 yrs	Wesleyan Church, Taranaki St, Wellington	99/539	Kezia Wilson - Mother	13 February 1899	Revd Wm Baumber

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).