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 319

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar M. Wankersou

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
106	20 March 1899	St. George Atkinson Agnes Gertrude Watkins	St George Atkinson Agnes Gertrude Watkins 💍 1899/836	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 24 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	99/790	20 March 1899	Ven. Archdeacon Lingard, Church of England
107	20 March 1899	John Hunter Florence Sparks	John Hunter Florence Sparks 💍 1899/643	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	29 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 23 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	99/743	20 March 1899	Registrar M. Wankersou
108	20 March 1899	William Robert Archibald Isabella Mabel Taylor	William Robert Archibald Isabella Annie Mabel Taylor 💍 1899/642	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Machinist	22 21	Sydenham Sydenham	22 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	99/742	20 March 1899	Registrar M. Wankersou
109	21 March 1899	James Albert Day Susan Martin	James Albert Berg Susan Martin 💍 1899/2261	Bachelor Spinster	Millwright	27 24	Avonside Avonside	4 days 20 years	Avonside Church	99/794	21 March 1899	Rev. W. A. Dore, Anglican
110	22 March 1899	Albert Henry Jenkins Rose Agnes Voller	Albert Henry Jenkin Rose Agnes Mary Voller 💍 1899/847	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman Dressmaker	28 23	Christchurch Ferry Road, Linwood	28 years 23 years	House of Mrs. Voller	99/800	22 March 1899	Rev. J. J. Bolke, Baptist
111	22 March 1899	Joseph Edward Stevens Elsie Van Asch	Joseph Edward Stevens Elsie Van Asch 💍 1899/926	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	29 26	Sumner Sumner	12 years 18 years	Anglican Church, Sumner	99/814	22 March 1899	Rev. C. H. Gesch, Anglican
112	22 March 1899	James Henry Coleman Annie Cleland	James Henry Coleman Bush Jemima Cleland 💍 1899/944	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 26	Christchurch Woolston	25 years 10 years	St. Peter's Church, Woolston	99/808	22 March 1899	Rev. J. M. Simpson, Presbyterian

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).