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 809

District of Takaka Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar J. Bursey

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
191	11 May 1899	Edwin James Winter Bertha Lily Charles	Edwin James Winter Bertha Lilly Charles 💍 1899/2091	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	28 years 27	Motupipi Motupipi	1 year 25 yrs	Dwelling house of Bride's Brother, Motupipi	99/2045		11 May 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, Church of England
192	15 May 1899	Adolphus McNabb Margaret Davis MacKay	Adolphas McNabb Margaret Davis Mackay 💍 1899/2099	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic	25 19	Takaka Takaka	2 years 1½ years	Dwelling house of Bride's Parents, Takaka	99/2046	Josiah Gilbert MacKay, Father	15 May 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, Church of England
193	2 June 1899	Walter James Hitchcock Lily Spittall	Walter James Hitchcock Lilly Spittal 💍 1899/2117	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 20	Long Plain Anatoki	25 15	Dwelling house of A. Spittall, Anatoki	99/2048	Alexander Spittall, Father	2 June 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, Church of England
194	5 June 1899	James Alexander Kellor Mary Ellen Coppell	James Alexander Kellor May Ellen Coppell 💍 1899/2110	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 20	Takaka Motupipi	3 months 15 years	Dwelling house of S. Coppell, Motupipi	99/2047	William George Coppell, Father	5 June 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, Church of England
195	6 June 1899	Thomas Henry Ellis Mary Winter	Thomas Henry Ellis Mary Winter 💍 1899/2118	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	27 years 22	Clifton Motupipi	27 years 22 years	Dwelling house of H. Winter, Clifton, Motupipi	99/2049		6 June 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, Church of England
196	15 June 1899	John William Handcock Edith Annie Newport	John William Handcock Edith Anne Newport 💍 1899/2119	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	32 years 21	East Takaka East Takaka		Dwelling house of Joshua Newport, East Takaka	99/2050		15 June 1899	Rev. H. W. Klingender, 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).