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 247

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
121	22 March 1899	Francis Vincent de Paul de Rosa Esther Eunice Miller	Francis Vincent de Paul de Rosa Esther Eunice Miller 💍 1899/610	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	21 17	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	12 years 17 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/529	Wm Henry Miller, Father	23 March 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
122	23 March 1899	Ernest Alfred King Ethel May Luke	Ernest Alfred King Ethel May Luke 💍 1899/459	Bachelor Spinster	Coachsmith	19 18	Wellington Wellington	19 years 5 years	Residence of Mr Jno Luke, 23 Ghuznee Street, Wellington	99/564	Harriet Thursa King, Mother; John Luke, Father	23 March 1899	Revd J. R. Ellcott, Registrar
123	24 March 1899	George Henry Norie Ann Jane Lockett	George Henry Norie Annie Jane Lockett 💍 1899/557	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk	43 29	Wellington Karori	9 months 27 years	Church of England, Karori	99/500		24 March 1899	Revd J. R. Cameron
124	24 March 1899	Mark Fassin Catherine Mary Wilton	Mark Cassin Catherine Mary Wittow 💍 1899/1955	Widower Spinster	Constable	36 25	Wellington Wellington	6 years 25 years	Boulecott Street Church, Wellington	99/1910		24 March 1899	Revd Thomas De Vory
125	25 March 1899	Adolph Monod Feist Emma Josephine Chapple	Adolph Monod Feist Emma Josephine Chapple 💍 1899/764	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher Teacher	28 33	Ohau Petone	3 months 7 years	St Davids Church, Otaki; Petone	99/684		25 March 1899	Revd A. Thomson
126	25 March 1899	Henry Haywood Mears Gertrude Emma Buckhurst	Henry Haywood Mirams Gertrude Emma Buckhurst 💍 1899/701	Bachelor Widow	Salesman	29 33	Wellington Hutt	8 years 14 years	St James Church, Lower Hutt	99/595		29 March 1899	Revd Joshua Jones
127	29 March 1899	William George Hodder Robina Mabel Gertrude Gardner	William George Hodder Robina Mabel Gertrude Gardner 💍 1899/704	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 23	Mangawhaka Wellington	3 months 9 years	Residence of W. A. Rushton, Petone	99/575		28 March 1899	Revd T. F. Jones
128	29 March 1899	Charles Leonard Dearsley Emily Maria Brown	Charles Leonard Dearsley Emily Maria Brown 💍 1899/602 Charles Fisher Johnson Emily Matilda Brown 💍 1899/3727	Bachelor Spinster	Estate Agent Teacher	28 34	Christchurch Wellington	28 years 25 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki Street, Wellington	99/544		29 March 1899	Revd Wm Bannister
129	29 March 1899	Walter Clements Hampson Annie Banks	Walter Clements Hampton Annie Banks 💍 1899/2798	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 25	Wellington Wellington	1 year 5 months	St Marks Church, Wellington	99/2658		29 March 1899	Revd R. Coffey
130	29 March 1899	James William Clement List Clara Edith Dowdall	James William Clement List Clara Edith Dowdall 💍 1899/5433	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	21 24	Petone Wellington	10 years 6 months	Trinity Church, Wellington	99/701		29 March 1899	Revd C. Lawry

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).