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 311

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Markerson

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
59	8 February 1899	Edwin James Chamberlain Sarah Ann Berry	Edwin James Chamberlain Sarah Ann Berry 💍 1899/654	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Tailoress	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	25 Years 21 Years	Registrar Office	99/730		8 February 1899	Registrar Markerson
60	9 February 1899	William Henry Etheridge Lily Keziah Williams	William Henry Etheridge Lily Kelszia Williams 💍 1899/843	Bachelor Spinster	Bookholder Bookholder	28 25	Linwood Linwood	2 Years 12 Years	House of Mr. Williams, Armagh St.	99/797		9 February 1899	Rev. I. I. Bode, Baptist
61	10 February 1899	William Walter Berry Mary Josephine O'Rielly	William Walter Berry Mary Josephine O'Rielly 💍 1899/842	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Dressmaker	30 26	Sydenham Sydenham	6 Years 6 Years	Pro Cathedral, Christchurch	99/796		10 February 1899	Rev. R. Richards, Roman Catholic
62	10 February 1899	John Mudie Turnbull Louisa Grace Cowlishaw	John Mudie Turnbull Louisa Grace Cowlishaw 💍 1899/858	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	33 26	Christchurch Avonside	33 Years 26 Years	Holy Trinity Church	99/764		10 February 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
63	11 February 1899	John Matthew Baxter Edith Mabel Burgess	John Matthew Baxter Edith Mabel Burgess 💍 1899/864	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 25	Christchurch Christchurch	5 days 19 Years	Wesleyan Church, Durham St.	99/770		11 February 1899	Rev. J. McNicoll, Wesleyan
64	11 February 1899	Edward McCole Munro May Thomiski	Edward McCole Munro Mary Shomiski 💍 1899/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	19 17	Christchurch Christchurch	19 Years 17 Years	Roman Catholic Church, Manchester St.	99/706	John Munro, Father; Janet Munro, Mother	11 February 1899	Rev. W. J. Mannowe, Roman Catholic
65	13 February 1899	Charles Innes Selina O'Brien	Charles Johnson Delia O'Brien 💍 1899/851	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	34 28	Christchurch Christchurch	1 Month 4 days	Pro Cathedral	99/783		13 February 1899	A. W. Averill, Roman Catholic

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).