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 633

District of Waihi Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar Albert Pasmir Bolth

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
84	1 April 1899	John Richard Tebbens Annie McCarthy	John Richard Oldham Joyce Annie McCarthy 💍 1899/5503	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 26	Waihi Waihi	4 years 3 years	Mrs Annie Tebbens, Hotel Waihi	99/1566		1 April 1899	Rev. James J. Hackett
85	1 April 1899	Samuel Neil Thompson Anna Dorothea Muller	Samuel Neil Thompson Anna Dorothea Miller 💍 1899/1593	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	25 22	Waihi Waihi	12 months 10 months	Private residence of Mr. Herbert, Building Waihi	99/1569		1 April 1899	Rev. W. Beckett
86	1 April 1899	William Pursell Lock Annie Lowry	William Russell Locke Annie Lowery 💍 1899/1591	Bachelor Spinster	Battery Hand Boarding Housekeeper	33 27	Waihi Waihi	3 years 1 year 6 months	Private residence of Miss A. Lowry, Waihi	99/1565		1 April 1899	Rev. James J. Hackett
87	5 April 1899	James Jones Elizabeth Brinting	James Jones Elizabeth Bunting 💍 1899/1736 James Gare Elizabeth Mawson 💍 1899/2630 James Kelso Elizabeth Hamilton 💍 1899/1968	Bachelor Spinster	Transport Man	30 18	Waitekauri Waitekauri	2 years 18 years	Private residence of Mr. Henry Dames, Waitekauri	99/1558	Henry Dames, father of bride	5 April 1899	Registrar William Henry Wilson
88	5 April 1899	James John Cochrane Emma Cox	James John Cochrane Emma Cox 💍 1899/1740	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 19	Waihi Waihi	2 years 6 months	Mr. Gus Armstrong's Private residence, Waihi	99/1562		7 April 1899	Rev. Samuel Barnett
89	12 April 1899	Arthur Patrick Kerr Florence May Dailie	Arthur Patrick Kerr Florence May Waite 💍 1899/1737	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 16	Waitekauri Waitekauri	3 years 16 years	Private residence of Mrs. Elizabeth Dailie, Waitekauri	99/1559	Elizabeth Dailie, mother of bride	12 April 1899	Registrar William Henry Wilson
90	24 April 1899	James Lowrie Blanche Maude Gulyon	James Lowrie Blanche Maud Evelyn Snell 💍 1899/1573	Bachelor Spinster	Postmaster	29 20	Waihi Waihi	2 years 6 months 19 years 7 months	Private residence of Mr. Henry Fall, Waihi	99/1563	Henry Fall, father of bride	24 April 1899	Rev. Samuel Barnett
91	15 May 1899	Patrick Meehan Isabella Annie Coates	Patrick Meehan Isabella Annie Coates 💍 1899/1592	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	32 28	Golden Cross Waitekauri	18 months 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Waitekauri	99/1567		15 May 1899	Rev. James J. Hackett
92	5 June 1899	Robert White Annie Pearson	Robert McWhiter Annie Pearson 💍 1899/1739	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 26	Waitekauri Waitekauri	4 years 6 months	Registrar's Office, Waihi	99/1561		5 June 1899	Registrar
93	6 June 1899	Arthur Neil Mary Elizabeth Starkey	Arthur Neil Mary Elizabeth Starkey 💍 1899/5504	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Music Teacher	21 19	Waihi Waihi	2 years 6 months 3 years	Private residence of Mr. Starkey, Waihi	99/1568	Mr. Starkey, father of bride	6 June 1899	Rev. James J. Hackett
94	6 June 1899	Thomas Skinner Alma Jane Harvey	Thomas Skinner Alma Jane Harvey 💍 1899/1594 Thomas King Alice Annie Harvey 💍 1900/498	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 20	Waihi Waihi	3 years 18 years	Private residence of Mr. John Harvey, Waihi	99/1570	Mr. John Harvey, father of bride	6 June 1899	Rev. W. Beckett

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).