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 357

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Alexander Montgomery

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
1	4 January 1899	Thomas Quinn Lucille Elvina Rogers	Thomas Quinn Lucielle Elvina Rogers 💍 1899/986	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	22 24	Timaru Timaru	4 days 12 months	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	99/865		4 January 1899	Rev. J. Zubman, Roman Catholic Priest
2	9 January 1899	Alfred Jackson Annie Hicks	Alfred Jackson Annie Hicks 💍 1899/1321	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	27 24	Beaconsfield Otaio	6 months 4 years	Dwellinghouse of Gideon Hicks, Otaio	99/1221		9 January 1899	Rev. L. C. Brady, Church of England Clergyman
3	25 January 1899	Samuel Esler Jane Buchanan	Samuel Esler Jane Buchanan 💍 1899/981	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Housekeeper	38 35	Albury Timaru	18 years 6 days	Dwellinghouse of [illegible]	99/861		25 January 1899	Rev. Wm. Sillis, Presbyterian Minister
4	30 January 1899	Arthur Cumming Eliza Annie Lewis	Arthur Cumming Eliza Annie Lewis 💍 1899/979	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	Timaru Timaru	6 days 6 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	99/859	Frank Lewis, father	30 January 1899	Alex. Montgomery, Registrar
5	6 February 1899	Charles King Annie Sophia Anderson	Charles King Annie Sophia Anderson 💍 1899/987	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 28	Timaru Timaru	11 days 28 years	Wesleyan Church, Timaru	99/867		6 February 1899	Rev. J. Newman Brittle, Wesleyan Minister
6	10 February 1899	Michael Rooney Mary Eliza McCarthy	Michael Rooney Mary Eliza McCarthy 💍 1899/5496	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 20	Adair Upper Otaio	14 days 10 days	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	99/866	Patrick McCarthy, father	10 February 1899	Rev. J. Zubman, Roman Catholic Priest
7	24 February 1899	William Cock Lily Jane Sturgess	William Henry Cock Lily Jane Sturgess 💍 1899/985	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	19 20	Timaru Timaru	19 years 3 weeks	Dwelling House of George Cock, Avenue Road, Timaru	99/864	George Cock, father; Wm. Sturgess, father	24 February 1899	Rev. P. N. Jones, Minister, Methodist Minister
8	25 February 1899	William Arthur Thomas Elizabeth Necklen	William Arthur Thomas Elizabeth Necklen 💍 1899/982	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 27	Timaru Timaru	2 years 22 years	Dwellinghouse of Mrs. Necklen, Timaru	99/862		25 February 1899	Rev. Wm. Sillis, Presbyterian Minister
9	27 February 1899	Harry Ninham Gooch Gwendoline Jean Clarke	Harry Ninham Gooch Gwendolina Jean Clarke 💍 1899/3662	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Nurse	21 25	Timaru Timaru	21 years 10 years	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru			27 February 1899	Rev. W. H. Orbell, Church of England Clergyman
10	16 March 1899	Robert Campbell Butcher Sophia Marland	Robert Campbell Butcher Sophia Morland 💍 1899/1328	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	24 23	Timaru Timaru	20 years 3 days	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	99/1222		16 March 1899	Rev. W. H. Orbell, Church of England Clergyman

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).