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 655

District of Patea Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar Arnold William Mann

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
5	1 April 1899	Cecil John Hawken Eva Mary Tymes	Cecil John Hawken Eva Mary Symes 💍 1899/1666	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Patea Patea	5 days 1 year	Church of England, Patea	99/1642		1 April 1899	Rev C C Harper, Church of England
6	3 April 1899	William Summers Ellen Gertrude Penn	William Summers Ellen Gertrude Penn 💍 1899/1648	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	22 22	Patea Patea	7 days 7 weeks	Residence of Thos Penn, Patea	99/1640		3 April 1899	Rev T G Hammond, Wesleyan
7	8 April 1899	Samuel Dunn Johnston Mary Gertrude Meehan	Samuel Dunn Johnston Mary Gertrude Sheahan 💍 1899/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Waverley Patea	10 years 10 years	Residence of Jeremiah Meehan, Patea	99/1629		8 April 1899	Rev John Golden, Roman Catholic
8	18 April 1899	Harry Thorne Alice Jane Tong	Henery Thorne Alice Jane Long 💍 1899/1659	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 21	Kakaramea Kakaramea	4 years 5 years	Residence of Harry Tong, Kakaramea	99/1641		18 April 1899	Rev T G Hammond, Wesleyan
9	20 April 1899	John Otter Florence Emily Amon	John Ostler Florence Emily Amon 💍 1899/1667	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 19	Hurleyville Alton	2 years 18 years	Residence of Samuel Amon, Alton	99/1643	Samuel Amon, Father	20 April 1899	Rev C C Harper, Church of England
10	22 May 1899	John R V Clunehy Mary Elizabeth Schaffer	John McClinchy Mary Elizabeth Shaffer 💍 1899/1680	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 17	Patea Patea	19 years 1 year	Catholic Church, Patea	99/1630	John Schaffer, Father	22 May 1899	Rev John Golden, Roman Catholic
11	16 June 1899	James Fleming Katie Angeline Malone	James Fleming Kate Margaret Angeline Malone 💍 1899/4	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 24	Patea Patea	3 days 3 years	Catholic Church, Patea	99/3879		16 June 1899	Rev Wm McGrath, Roman Catholic
12	19 June 1899	Robert William Holden Hamerton Marian Neworthy	Robert William Holden Hamerton Marian Kenworthy 💍 1899/1668	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 27	Patea Patea	15 years 12 years	Church of England, Patea	99/1644		19 June 1899	Rev C C Harper, Church of England
13	26 June 1899	William Arthur Brown Mary Eliza Gadsby	William Arthur Scown Mary Eliza Eadsby 💍 1899/1590 William Arthur Leach Mary Elizabeth McKeegan 💍 1899/4819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 20	Alton Patea	10 years 4 years	Residence of Wm Gadsby, Patea	99/1589		26 June 1899	Rev Thos Mc Donald, Presbyterian
14	26 June 1899	William Edward Taylor Clara Alford	William Edward Taylor Clara Alford 💍 1899/1669 William Thomas Ridley Mary Alford 💍 1899/1670	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 19	Kakaramea Kakaramea	20 years 19 years	Church of England, Patea	99/1645	Joseph Alford, Father	26 June 1899	Rev C C Harper, Church of England
15	26 June 1899	William Thomas Ridley Mary Alford	William Thomas Ridley Mary Alford 💍 1899/1670 William Edward Taylor Clara Alford 💍 1899/1669	Bachelor Spinster		25 22	Kakaramea Kakaramea	5 months 20 years	Church of England, Patea	99/1646		26 June 1899	Rev C C Harper, Church of England

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).