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 408

District of East Taieri Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar Septimus Edward Grant

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	20 January 1899	Thomas Holdness Havey Edith Mary Nairn Howorth	Thomas Holden Davey Edith May Nairn Howorth 💍 1899/1135	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 28	Brighton Walton Park	3 years 24 years	House of James Howorth, Walton Park	99/1249		20 January 1899	Rev. R. H. Watt
2	21 January 1899	Charles Findlay Agnes Gawn	Charles Findlay Agnes Gaurn 💍 1899/2527	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 19	North Taieri North Taieri	24 years 19 years	House of Robert Gawn, North Taieri	99/2497		21 January 1899	Rev. Thos. Paulin
3	24 January 1899	Arthur Ernest Ide Mary Clark	Arthur Earnest Ede Mary Clark 💍 1899/2528	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Allanton Whare Flat	23 years 7 days	House of William Clark, Whare Flat	99/2498	William Clark, Father	24 January 1899	Rev. Thos. Paulin
4	28 January 1899	Alexander Crow McGeorge Ethel Agnes Aldred	Alexander Crow McGeorge Ethel Agnes Aldred 💍 1899/1061	Bachelor Spinster	Dredge Manager	30 19	Allanton Allanton	3 days 19 years	House of F. S. Aldred, Allanton	99/997	F. S. Aldred, Father	28 January 1899	Rev. Wm. Will
5	20 February 1899	Andrew Turnbull Lily Selman	Andrew Turnbull Lillie Selman 💍 1899/1058	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Mosgiel Mosgiel	20 years 1 year	Office of Registrar, Gordon Road, Mosgiel	99/994	John Selman, Father	20 February 1899	Registrar, East Taieri District
6	2 February 1899	James Lyall Jessie McMeinlay	James Lyall Jessie McKinlay 💍 1899/1059	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	31 30	Mosgiel Mosgiel Junction	3 days 4 days	House of John McMeinlay, Mosgiel Junction	99/995		21 February 1899	Rev. H. Boreham
7	16 March 1899	Arthur Oscar Blundell Janet Dryden	Arthur Oscar Blundell Janet Dryden 💍 1899/1060	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Officer	26 28	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 26 years	Volunteer Hall, Mosgiel	99/996		16 March 1899	Major Bennett, Salvation Army
8	24 March 1899	James Noble Waddell Julia Mary Walker	James Noble Waddell Julia Mary Walker 💍 1899/970	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	36 29	East Taieri Roslyn Dunedin	36 years 18 years	First Church, Dunedin	99/928		24 March 1899	Rev. James Gibb

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).