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 829

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar J. Ward

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1103	4 April 1899	Charles Cairns Margaret O'Connor	Charles Cairns Margaret O'Conner 💍 1899/2411	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	30 30	Hinds Hinds	3 days 2 years	Roman Catholic Church at Ashburton	99/2353	4 April 1899	Reverend J. J. O'Donnell
1104	11 April 1899	John Holland Mary Grew	John Holland Mary Ann Frew 💍 1899/2336	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	28 19	Flemington Greendale	20 years 10 years	Presbyterian Church, Greendale	99/2200	11 April 1899	Jas. Maxwell
1105	11 April 1899	William James Anderson Annie Jane Henderson	William James Anderson Annie Jane Henderson 💍 1899/2143	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 23	Flemington Flemington	10 years 8 years	Presbyterian Church, Flemington	99/2114	11 April 1899	Reverend James Skinner
1106	18 April 1899	William Jewell Susannah Lucy Harding	William Jewell Susannah Lucy Harding 💍 1899/2145	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 22	Millowby Millowby	3 days 12 years	Wesleyan Church, Millowby	99/2116	18 April 1899	Reverend James Mather
1107	18 April 1899	Charles Edmund Jennings Marian Alice Brown	Charles Edmund Jennings Marian Alice Brown 💍 1899/2223	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	42 35	Ashburton Papanui	12 years 15 years	St. Paul's Church, Papanui	99/2153	18 April 1899	Reverend H. J. Purchas
1108	19 April 1899	John Booker Christina Margaret Rattray	John Broker Christina Margaret Rattray 💍 1899/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Factory Operative	27 21	Trevorton Trevorton	17 years 17 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	99/2104	19 April 1899	J. Ward, Registrar
1109	22 April 1899	William Breddon Annie Elizabeth Webster	William Sneddon Annie Elizabeth Webber 💍 1899/2202 William Buchanan Annie Elizabeth McAlister 💍 1899/5176	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 21	Ashburton Ashburton	20 years 3 days	Private Dwelling of Robert Webster at Hampstead	99/2107	22 April 1899	Reverend Geo. B. Inglis
1110	5 May 1899	William Wilson Rachel Corbett	William Wilson Rachel Corbett 💍 1899/2144	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Mayfield Makatami	6 years 25 years	Presbyterian Church at Makatami	99/2115	5 May 1899	Reverend James Skinner
1111	8 May 1899	William McLean Nellie Doak	William McLean Nellie Doak 💍 1899/39	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 20	Riverside Nakanui Nakanui	3 weeks 10 years	Private Dwelling of John Doak at Nakanui	99/2109	8 May 1899	Reverend Geo. B. Inglis
1112	16 May 1899	Guy Stewart McRae Marie Louie McNeill	Guy Stewart McRae Marie Louise McNeill 💍 1899/114	Bachelor Widow	Butcher	25 24	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	99/3462	28 June 1899	J. Ward, Registrar
1113	19 May 1899	Robert Robinson Elizabeth Weldon	Robert Gilmour Elizabeth Weldon 💍 1899/2203	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	41 35	Ashton Ashburton	18 years 12 years	Private Dwelling of Robert Presbyterian Church at Ashburton	99/2108	19 May 1899	Reverend Geo. B. Inglis

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).