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 242

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
81	17 February 1899	Herbert Cook Murdoch Elizabeth McCallum	Herbert Cook Murdoch Elizabeth McCallum 💍 1899/1262	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 28	Wellington Wellington	27 years 28	Primitive Methodist Church, Sydney Street, Wellington	99/180		19 February 1899	Revd Richard Hall
82	18 February 1899	John Francis Wallis Charlotte Minnie Eglinton	John Francis Wallis Charlotte Minnie Eglinton 💍 1899/700	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 23	Wellington Lower Hutt	24 years 10	Church of England, Lower Hutt	99/594		18 February 1899	Revd Joshua Jones
83	20 February 1899	Edwin Arthur Tanner Priscilla Eliza Ellen Collins	Edwin Arthur Tanner Priscilla Eliza Ellen Collins 💍 1899/5431	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	23 25	Wellington Wellington	4 years 20	Primitive Church, Renall Street, Wellington	99/699		22 February 1899	Revd A. C. Lawry
84	20 February 1899	Walter Henry Usmar Elizabeth Emily Brown	William Henry Usmar Elizabeth Emily Brown 💍 1899/766	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Tailoress	24 23	Wellington Wellington	24 years 22	St. Mark's Church, Wellington	99/686		20 February 1899	Revd Richard Coffey
85	20 February 1899	William Deans Milne Hetty Williams	William Deans Milne Hetty Williams 💍 1899/775	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	37 28	Dunedin Wellington	35 years 10	Residence of W. E. M. Williams, Ghuznee Street, Wellington	99/694		22 February 1899	Revd Jas Paterson
86	20 February 1899	William Bertie Bull Julia Emma Clark	William Bertie Bull Julia Emma Clark 💍 1899/5432	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Fitter	21 17	Wellington Wellington	21 years 10	Residence of W. Richard Lewis, Daniel Street, Wellington	99/700	Samuel Stephen Clark, Father	22 February 1899	Revd A. C. Lawry
87	21 February 1899	Albert John Gould Lydia Clements	Albert John Gould Lydia Clements 💍 1899/765	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 23	Feilding Wellington	14 years 23	St. Mark's Church, Wellington	99/685		21 February 1899	Revd Richard Coffey
88	21 February 1899	William Alfred Chote Beatrice Ellen Hagan	William Alfred Chote Beatrice Ellen Hagan 💍 1899/555	Widower Spinster	Contractor	36 20	Wellington Wellington	23 years 2	Registrar's Office, Wellington	99/521	Richard Hagan, Father	21 February 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
89	22 February 1899	Duncan Paterson McLean Constance Ruth Bibby	Duncan Paterson McLean Constance Ruth Bibby 💍 1899/458	Bachelor Spinster	Stock Agent	31 29	Waimate Waipawa	3 years 29 years	Kent Terrace Presbyterian Church, Wellington	99/563		22 February 1899	Revd J. R. Elliott
90	23 February 1899	George William Wright Jennie Sutherland	George William Wright Jeanie Sutherland 💍 1899/599	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	36 36	Wellington Wellington	4 months 12	Wesleyan Parsonage, Taranaki Street, Wellington	99/542		23 February 1899	Revd Wm. Bamber

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).