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 773

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar Frederick William Mansfield

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
251	17 June 1899	Henry Border Kate Harper	Henry Border Kate Harper 💍 1899/1850	Widower Widow	Hotel Keeper	61 35	Joy Low Rakaia, Canterbury	8 1/2 years 22 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/1894		17 June 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
252	19 June 1899	Paris Henry Claude Boulton Amelia May Smith	Paris Henry Claude Boulton Amelia May Smith 💍 1899/1971	Bachelor Spinster	Artilleryman	22 20	Wellington Wellington	3 years 3 1/2 years	St. Johns Church, Willis Street, Wellington	99/1902	Mary Jane Smith, Mother	19 June 1899	Revd James Paterson
253	19 June 1899	Arthur Oliver Tovey Catherine Jane Normans	Arthur Oliver Tovey Catherine Jane Youmans 💍 1899/1985	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	37 32	Wellington Wellington	10 years 32 years	Residence of A. & M. Normans, Ingestre Street, Wellington	99/1904		19 June 1899	Mr. Frank Hales
254	19 June 1899	Ernest James Wiffin Henrietta May Tabor	Ernest James Cason Wittin Henrietta May Tabor 💍 1899/3051	Bachelor Spinster	Bookbinder	25 23	Wellington Wellington	17 years 23 years	St. Pauls Pro Cathedral, Wellington	99/2763		19 June 1899	Revd T. H. Sprott
255	19 June 1899	Walter Lawson Jukes Annie Jukes	Walter Lawson Annie Jukes 💍 1899/1997	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	26 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 21 years	Revd W. C. Olivers Manse, Taranaki Street, Wellington	99/1952		19 June 1899	Revd W. C. Oliver
256	23 June 1899	William Berry Harriett Elizabeth Hillsden	William Berry Harriet Elizabeth Hillsden 💍 1899/1844	Bachelor Married, deserted by husband, 27/1/1881	Photographer	41 39	Wellington Wellington	20 years 22 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/1897		26 June 1899	F. W. Mansfield, 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).