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 390

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
41	8 February 1899	George Gray Russell Barbara Amalia Gray Mayne	George Gray Russell Barbara Amelia Gray Mayne 💍 1899/1119	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	70 years 51 years	North East Harbour North East Harbour	20 years 5 months	In St Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin	99/135	8 February 1899	Reverend G. G. Robinson, Church of England Minister
42	10 February 1899	James Shore Jessie Tyson Irwin	James Shore Jessie Tyson Irwin 💍 1899/1047	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 years 23 years	Dunedin Mornington	3 days 2 years	In the house of Peter Emanuel Stark, Caversham	99/984	10 February 1899	Reverend William Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
43	10 February 1899	Samuel George Southam Emily Maud Le Page	Samuel George Southam Emily Maud Le Page 💍 1899/1190	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 24 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	24 years 4 years	In the house of Walker Horner	99/961	10 February 1899	Reverend John Muirhead, Baptist Minister
44	10 February 1899	Thomas Hughes Junior Harriet Roberts	Thomas Hughes Junr Harriet Roberts 💍 1899/1201	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 22 years	North East Valley North East Valley	6 days 22 years	In the Methodist Church, Dundas Street, Dunedin	99/971	10 February 1899	Reverend W. Laycock, Methodist Minister
45	13 February 1899	William Alexander Jamieson Bell Euphemia Bell McFarlane	William Alexander Jamieson Bell Euphemia Bell McFarlane 💍 1899/1323	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	26 years 26 years	Dunedin Mornington	1 week 26 years	In the house of Alexander Allen	99/1240	13 February 1899	Reverend A. N. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister
46	13 February 1899	Thomas Charles Johnston Edith Alma Baird	Thomas Charles Johnston Edith Alma Baird 💍 1899/2480	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	23 years 23 years	Dunedin South Dunedin	9 months 1 year	In the house of William Phillip	99/2448	13 February 1899	Reverend Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
47	13 February 1899	William Cameron Marjory Parker	William Cameron Marjory Parker 💍 1899/966	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	27 years 21 years	Roslyn Dunedin	21 years 21 years	In the First Church, Dunedin	99/974	13 February 1899	Reverend James Gibb, Presbyterian Minister

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).