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 639

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar Charles Edmund Nicholas

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
13	5 April 1899	Samuel Henry Macky Ethel Jane Armstrong	Samuel Henry Macky Ethel Jane Armstrong 💍 1899/1576	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	26 27	Devonport Maunu	2 months life	residence brides parents, Maunu	99/1576		5 April 1899	Rev. D. J. Steele M.A.
14	6 April 1899	Thomas Manfrey Wells Isabella Munro Wilson	Thomas Murphy Mills Isabella Munro Wilson 💍 1899/1578	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	32 33	Auckland Maungatapere	life 6 years	residence brides parents, Maungatapere	99/1578		6 April 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
15	12 April 1899	James Conaghan Emily Lina Hughes	James Conaghan Emily Lina Hughes 💍 1899/1596	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 21	Whangarei Whangarei	life 1 year	Registrar's office, Whangarei	99/1572		12 April 1899	The Registrar
16	18 April 1899	John Morgan Edith Gertrude Annie Kehoe	John Morgan Edith Gertrude Annie Kehoe 💍 1899/1579	Bachelor Spinster	Gum digger	32 21	Otaika Maunu	20 years 21 years	Christ Church, Whangarei	99/1579		18 April 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
17	26 April 1899	Peter Allain Lena Buckhardt	Peter Allain Lena Burkhardt 💍 1899/1597	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 17	Helena Bay Helena Bay	3 months 15 years	Registrar's office, Whangarei	99/1573	F. Buckhardt, father	26 April 1899	The Registrar
18	6 May 1899	Adolf Edmund Hofmann Mary Ann Hicks	Adolf Edmund Hofmann Mary Ann Hicks 💍 1899/2763	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 22	Hikurangi Hikurangi	1 year 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Hikurangi	99/2722		6 May 1899	Rev. J. H. Hawkes M.A.
19	9 May 1899	William Hay Emily Gibbons	William Hay Emily Gibbons 💍 1899/1583	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 19	Puhi Puhi Puhi Puhi	17 years 5 years	residence Brides Parents, Puhi Puhi	99/1583	Helena Taylor, mother	9 May 1899	Rev. C. H. Collins
20	10 May 1899	James Dobbs Sarah Jane Haorop Hutchinson	James Dobbs Sarah Jane Starrop Hutchinson 💍 1899/1574	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	25 15	Hukerenui Hukerenui	10 years 11 years	Registrar's office, Whangarei	99/1574	K. R. Hutchinson, father	10 May 1899	The Registrar
21	15 May 1899	William Reid Clarke Kathleen Flora Wilson	William Reid Clarke Kathleen Flora Wilson 💍 1899/1580	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 27	Maunu Maungatapere	12 years 7 years	residence brides parent, Maungatapere	99/1580		15 May 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
22	17 May 1899	Moss Smith Rachel Laura Dobbs	Moss Smith Rachael Laura Dobbs 💍 1899/1575	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	28 15	Hukerenui S. Hukerenui S.	5 years 12 years	Registrar's office, Whangarei	99/1575	John Dobbs, father	17 May 1899	The 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).