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 321

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

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
120	25 March 1899	Ernest George Bailey Mary Ash	Ernest George Bailey Mary Ash 💍 1899/861	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	33 30	St Albans Sydenham	22 years 7 years	St Andrews Manse, Christchurch	99/767		25 March 1899	Rev. B. Webster, Presbyterian
121	27 March 1899	William Severn Dunford Violetta Priscilla Dunford	William Devenie Violetta Priscilla Dunford 💍 1899/645	Bachelor Spinster	Currier Domestic	27 21	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 21 years	Registrar Office	99/775		29 March 1899	Registrar M. Anderson
122	27 March 1899	John Henry Jeffery Alice Emma Jeffery	John Henry Wilton Alice Emma Jeffery 💍 1899/2174	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic	24 28	Woolston Linwood	12 years 15 months	Wesleyan Church, Linwood	99/862		27 March 1899	Rev. J. G. Hoskins, Wesleyan
123	27 March 1899	John Rochester Morrison Helen Topp Morrison	John Rochester Helen Topp Morrison 💍 1899/1277	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	40 42	Sumner Sumner	5 years 5 years	St Andrews Manse, Christchurch	99/1194		27 March 1899	Rev. T. G. Elmslie, Presbyterian
124	27 March 1899	Andrew Calder Letitia Ayers	Andrew Calder Letitia Ayers 💍 1899/924	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	26 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 1 week	House of Mr. James, North Belt, Christchurch	99/812		27 March 1899	Rev. T. Erwin, Presbyterian
125	28 March 1899	Nelson Harman Bacon Jane Taylor	Nelson Herman Gardiner Dacombe Jane Taylor 💍 1899/855 Edward Gordon Mackie Jane Taylor 💍 1899/4637	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Shop Assistant	29 30	Christchurch Sydenham	4 years 30 years	House of Mr. Whittaker, Sydenham	99/787		28 March 1899	Rev. R. Scott, Presbyterian
126	28 March 1899	Thomas Alexander Clifford Agnes Christiana Clifford	Thomas Alexander Stewart Agnes Christina Clifford 💍 1899/1276	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	26 27	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 27 years	House of Mrs. Clifford, Beckenham	99/1193		28 March 1899	Rev. T. G. Elmslie, Presbyterian
127	29 March 1899	Francis Edwin Piper Henrietta Jane Summerfield	Francis Edwin Piper Henrietta Jane Summerfield 💍 1899/3704	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Domestic	22 20	Christchurch Christchurch	11 years 20 years	St Andrews Manse, Christchurch	99/3577	Henry Summerfield, father	29 March 1899	Rev. G. Webster, Presbyterian

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 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).