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 663

District of Waitara Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar Edward Healy Rouse

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
190	11 April 1899	Arthur Joseph Chard Elwina Rasmussen	Arthur Joseph Chand Elvina Rasmussen 💍 1899/380	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	21 19	Waitara Waitara	15 years 8 years	In house of Mr. Rasmussen	99/337	Mary Rasmussen, Mother	11 April 1899	F. W. Thomas
191	22 April 1899	Alfred Classon Bell Winifred Eliza Freeling	Alfred Glasson Bell Winifred Eliza Freeling 💍 1899/1821	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	28 24	Tarata Waitara	8 months 10 years	St. Johns Church	99/1673		22 April 1899	F. W. Walker
192	24 April 1899	Charles Heant Ada Mary Grove	Charles Hunt Ada Mary Crowe 💍 1899/1820	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	35 27	Waitara Lepperton	3 days 10 years	St. Johns Church	99/1672		24 April 1899	F. W. Walker
193	23 May 1899	Frederick William Young Sarah Annie Joll	Frederick William Young Sarah Annie Joll 💍 1899/1801	Widower Spinster	Clergyman, Church of England Domestic duties	34 32	Waitara Waitara	3 days 30 years	In house of Mrs. Joll, Waitara	99/1676		23 May 1899	F. W. Walker
194	25 May 1899	Richard Frederick Geddy Evelina Muschamp	Richard Frederick Giddy Evelena Muschamp 💍 1899/1800	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	25 23	Hurangi Waitara	25 years 11 years	St. Johns Church	99/1675		25 May 1899	F. W. Walker
195	29 May 1899	Thomas Henry Whitmore Emily Myra Gilbert	Thomas Henry Whitmore Emily Myra Gilbert 💍 1899/1799	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	29 24	Waitara Waitara	6 years 20 years	St. Johns Church	99/1674		29 May 1899	F. W. Walker
196	13 June 1899	Walter Edwards Ellen Whitehead	Walter Edwards Ellen Whitehead 💍 1899/1802	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Household duties	27 27	Tikorangi Tikorangi	3 days 27 years	In house of Mrs. Whitehead, Tikorangi	99/1677		13 June 1899	F. W. Walker
197	20 June 1899	John Frederick Loveridge Augusta Paulina Manning	John Frederick Horendge Augusta Pauline Manning 💍 1899/1803	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	23 23	Hurangi Hurangi	23 years 1 week	In house of Mr. Loveridge, Hurangi	99/1678		20 June 1899	F. W. Walker
198	28 June 1899	Walter Colson Sarah Frances Ethel Colson	Walter Colson Sarah Francis Ethel Colson 💍 1899/1804	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	30 29	Waitara Waitara	10 years 14 years	St. Johns Church	99/1679		28 June 1899	F. W. Walker

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).