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 244

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
101	6 March 1899	Thomas Lintern Elizabeth Sheppard	Thomas Lintern Elizabeth Sheppard 💍 1899/600	Married Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	39 36	Wellington Wellington	11 months 4 months	Registrars Office Wellington	99/524		6 March 1899	F W Mansfield, Registrar
102	8 March 1899	William Heaps Reid Ann Eliza Sullivan	William Heaps Reid Ann Eliza Sullivan 💍 1899/464	Widower Widow	Upholsterer Upholsteress	56 55	Wellington Wellington	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	Wesleyan Church Thorndon	99/572		8 March 1899	Revd Thos F. Jones
103	9 March 1899	James Alexander Stewart Clara Lockie	James Alexander Stewart Clara Lockie 💍 1899/65	Bachelor Spinster	District Secretary A.M.P. Society	30 27	Greymouth Wellington	12 months 27 years	St Johns Church Wellington	99/696		13 March 1899	Revd James Paterson
104	9 March 1899	Walter George Meldrum Emma Jane Cloud	Walter George Meldrum Emma Jane Clout 💍 1899/689	Bachelor Spinster	Picture framer Machinist	27 24	Wellington Wellington	5 years 24 years	Victoria Hall Newtown Wellington	99/584		20 March 1899	Rev Horatio J. Walker
105	11 March 1899	Frank Manning Lily May Chandler	Frank Manning Lily May Chandler 💍 1899/776	Bachelor Spinster	Aerated Water Manufacturer	20 17	Wellington Wellington	6 years 14 years	St Johns Manse Wellington	99/695	William Manning - father. Maria Chandler - mother.	13 March 1899	Revd Jas Paterson
106	13 March 1899	John David Howell Ellen Russell	John David Horrell Ellen Russell 💍 1899/688	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 30	Paraparaumu Wellington	17 years 30 years	Residence of Mr James Russell Tory Street Wellington	99/583		13 March 1899	Revd Wm Simpson Terme
107	14 March 1899	Albert Parris Laura Elizabeth Garwood	Albert Parris Laura Elizabeth Garwood 💍 1899/606	Widower Spinster	Chef	46 36	Wd. Tapanui, London London	25 years 36 years	Registrars Office Wellington	99/525		16 March 1899	F W Mansfield, Registrar
108	14 March 1899	Frederick James Augustus Boyd Eleanor Elizabeth Frethey	Frederick James Augustus Boyd Eleanor Elizabeth Frethey 💍 1899/686	Bachelor Spinster	Bookfinisher	24 25	Wellington Wellington	24 years 15 years	Residence of Mrs Florence Frethey Molesworth St Wellington	99/573		14 March 1899	Revd T. F. Jones
109	14 March 1899	Richard Walton Short Lily Sparling Peterkin	Richard Walton Short Lily Sparling Peterkin 💍 1899/763	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 22	Petone Petone	10 years 2 years	Residence of F. A. Peterkin Hutt Road Petone	99/683		14 March 1899	Revd Alex Thomson
110	15 March 1899	Harold Carlisle Vera Havelock		Bachelor Spinster	Professional Singer Professional Dancer	22 21	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office Wellington	Not proceeded with

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).