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 287

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Benjamin Harper

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

13 January 1899

Alexander James Smith
Alice Jeffree

Alexander James Smith
Alice Jeffree
💍 1899/616

Bachelor
Spinster

Jockey

38 years
21 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

1 month
1 month

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth

99/658

13 January 1899

Benjamin Harper Registrar

No	1
Date of Notice	13 January 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander James Smith	Alice Jeffree
	💍 1899/616
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Jockey
Age	38 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	1 month	1 month
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
Folio	99/658
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 January 1899
Officiating Minister	Benjamin Harper Registrar

13 February 1899

John Philip Oscar Hoglund
Edith Mary Elizabeth Balham Croft

Johan Philip Oscar Skoglund
Edith Mary Elizabeth Balham Croft
💍 1899/617

Bachelor
Spinster

Bank clerk

24 years
25 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

Beyond 1 month
4 months

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth

99/659

13 February 1899

Benjamin Harper Registrar

No	2
Date of Notice	13 February 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Philip Oscar Hoglund	Edith Mary Elizabeth Balham Croft
BDM Match (94%)	Johan Philip Oscar Skoglund	Edith Mary Elizabeth Balham Croft
	💍 1899/617
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bank clerk
Age	24 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	Beyond 1 month	4 months
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
Folio	99/659
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1899
Officiating Minister	Benjamin Harper Registrar

13 February 1899

Henry Thomas Hoy
Mary Margaret Kerrigan

Henry Thomas Hoy
Mary Margaret Kerrigan
💍 1899/2114

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver

27 years
23 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

7 days
7 days

The Roman Catholic Church Greymouth

99/2068

13 February 1899

Reverend D. P. Carew

No	3
Date of Notice	13 February 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Thomas Hoy	Mary Margaret Kerrigan
	💍 1899/2114
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver
Age	27 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	7 days	7 days
Marriage Place	The Roman Catholic Church Greymouth
Folio	99/2068
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1899
Officiating Minister	Reverend D. P. Carew

24 February 1899

William Henry Hunt
Abigail Joseph

William Henry Hunt
Abigail Joseph
💍 1899/618

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

24 years
24 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

6 months
7 years

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth

99/660

24 February 1899

Benjamin Harper

No	4
Date of Notice	24 February 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Hunt	Abigail Joseph
	💍 1899/618
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	24 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	6 months	7 years
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
Folio	99/660
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1899
Officiating Minister	Benjamin Harper

20 March 1899

John Hamilton Reid
Mabel Gertrude Griffiths

John Hamilton Reid
Mabel Gertrude Martha Griffiths
💍 1899/621

Bachelor
Spinster

Engine driver

25 years
25 years

Greymouth
Greymouth

3 years
10 years

The Recreation Hotel Argha

99/663

20 March 1899

Reverend Geo. W. York

No	5
Date of Notice	20 March 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hamilton Reid	Mabel Gertrude Griffiths
BDM Match (89%)	John Hamilton Reid	Mabel Gertrude Martha Griffiths
	💍 1899/621
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engine driver
Age	25 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Greymouth	Greymouth
Length of Residence	3 years	10 years
Marriage Place	The Recreation Hotel Argha
Folio	99/663
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 March 1899
Officiating Minister	Reverend Geo. W. York

23 March 1899

Thomas Coles DeFreitas
Margaret Ann DeFreitas

Thomas Coles
Margaret Ann Joseph De Freitas
💍 1899/619

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Servant

37 years
24 years

Ball Hill
Greymouth

14 days
10 months

The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth

99/661

23 March 1899

Benjamin Harper

No	6
Date of Notice	23 March 1899
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Coles DeFreitas	Margaret Ann DeFreitas
BDM Match (64%)	Thomas Coles	Margaret Ann Joseph De Freitas
	💍 1899/619
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Servant
Age	37 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Ball Hill	Greymouth
Length of Residence	14 days	10 months
Marriage Place	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Greymouth
Folio	99/661
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1899
Officiating Minister	Benjamin Harper

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1903. 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).