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 503

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar H. Lyons

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
245	12 April 1899	Charles Henry Richardson Rose Alice Alderton	Charles Henry Richardson Rose Alice Alderton 💍 1899/1544	Bachelor Spinster	Hand	27 21	Auckland Auckland	27 years 21 years	Registrar's Office	99/1272	12 April 1899	R. H. Lyons, Registrar
246	12 April 1899	Ernest Joseph Higgins Edith Mary Ann Catley	Ernest Joseph Patrick Higgins Edith Mary Ann Catley 💍 1899/1286	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	30 25	Onehunga Onehunga	30 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Onehunga	99/1377	12 April 1899	Very Rev. J. Paul, Roman Catholic
247	12 April 1899	Herbert Alfred Mann Mary Ann Heath Jozer	Herbert Alfred Mann Mary Ann Heath Tozer 💍 1899/5457	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 35	Auckland West Mount Eden	1 week 30 years	House of Rev. R. S. West, Mount Eden	99/2347	12 April 1899	Rev. R. S. West, Presbyterian
248	12 April 1899	Frederic John Middleton Helen Lennie	Frederic John Middleton Helen Lennie 💍 1899/1545	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	40 29	Auckland Auckland	5 weeks 1 year	Registrar's Office	99/1273	12 April 1899	R. H. Lyons, Registrar
249	13 April 1899	George Foster Amelia Farmer	George Haster Amelia Farmer 💍 1899/4187	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	44 24	Auckland Parnell	10 months 10 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Parnell	99/5180	13 April 1899	Rev. J. P. Kehoe, Roman Catholic
250	13 April 1899	Osmond Challoner Jull Annie Maria Brown	Osmond Challenge Providence Jull Annie Maria Brown 💍 1899/1546	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 23	Papatoetoe Auckland	1 year 6 months	Registrar's Office	99/1294	13 April 1899	R. H. Lyons, Registrar

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).