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 703

District of Carterton Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar W.C. Rar

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
7	4 April 1899	Frederick Quintrell Linglyn Gertrude Sussex	Frederick Quintrell Lizzie Gertrude Sussex 💍 1899/2796	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic duties	35 21	Makotuku Carterton	3 days Residence of William 5 months Insure Street Carterton		99/2647		4 April 1899	James Thomas, Wesleyan Minister
8	4 April 1899	Robert August Borthwick Frances Wittkowski	Robert August Spora Frances Vittkowski 💍 1899/2650	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	21 18	Carterton Carterton	1 year 3 months Carterton	St Mary's Church	99/2646	Kate Wittkowski, mother of bride	4 April 1899	John Osborne, Catholic Priest
9	27 April 1899	William Edward Cragg Edith Oliver	William Edward Cragg Edith Oliver 💍 1899/1794	Widower Spinster	Tobacconist Domestic duties	32 24	Masterton Carterton	Residence of Masterton 4 days Parkdale Carterton	A. Oliver	99/1744		27 April 1899	Robert Young, Minister Church of England
10	13 May 1899	William Strong Margaret Siston	William Strang Margaret Sexton 💍 1899/3017 William Brown Margaret Nixon 💍 1900/908 William Strang Margaret Jessie Barron 💍 1899/3653 William Milne Margaret Barron 💍 1899/2789 William Martin Margaret Smyth 💍 1899/3715 William Rouse Margaret Ayton 💍 1899/329 William Cream Margaret Buntings 💍 1899/2420 William Boag Margaret Eliza Morland 💍 1899/2264 William Patterson Margaret Annie Lyons 💍 1899/5022 William Clark Margaret Hill 💍 1899/3672	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	39 21	Gladstone Gladstone	1 month Residence of James Sexton 1 month Hotel Gladstone		99/3190		13 May 1899	William Ritchie, Minister Presbyterian Church
11	15 May 1899	Alfred Inwood Jane Sophia Nielsen	Alfred Merwood Jane Sophia Nielsen 💍 1899/2649	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	29 18	Dalefield Dalefield	7 years 6 weeks Dalefield	Wesleyan Chapel	99/2645	Neil Nielsen, father of bride	18 May 1899	Robert Young, Minister Church of England
12	24 May 1899	Richard Frank Coombes Caroline Adelaide Cooze	Richard Frank Sorensen Caroline Adelaide Cooze 💍 1899/3018	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic duties	20 22	Woodville Carterton	4 days Residence of Charles Joseph 7 weeks Cooze Carterton (High Street)		99/3191		24 May 1899	William Ritchie, Minister Presbyterian Church

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).