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 837

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar J. M. Macleeson

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
180	18 April 1899	Edward Wallis Mary Ann Elizabeth Wilson	Edward Killick Mary Elizabeth Wilding 💍 1900/2456	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	29 24	Christchurch Christchurch	29 years 24 years	House of Mrs. Bird, Opawa	99/2170		18 April 1899	Rev. J. Ferguson, Congregationalist
181	19 April 1899	Edward Fenton Lucy Elizabeth Fenton	Edward Fenton Lucy Elstob 💍 1899/2129	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	19 18	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 18 years	Registrar's Office	99/2124	Joseph Henry Fenton, father of groom; Elizabeth Fenton, mother of bride	19 April 1899	Registrar of Marriages
182	20 April 1899	William Logary Burgess Louisa Edgeworth Beach	William Logan Burgess Louisa Edgeworth Cole 💍 1899/2242	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	22 18	Avonside Christchurch	22 years 18 years	Holy Trinity Church	99/2198	by authority May Rev W. A. Pascoe to consent	20 April 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
183	21 April 1899	Charles Edward Jennings Marian Alice Brown	Charles Edmund Jennings Marian Alice Brown 💍 1899/2223	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	42 35	Ashburton Papanui	1 year 15 years	St. Paul's Ashburton Church	99/2153		21 April 1899	Rev. H. J. Purchase, Anglican
184	21 April 1899	Edmund Smart Wren Jane Susannah Green	Edmund Smart Jane Susannah Uren 💍 1899/2645	Widower Widow	Contractor Domestic	68 56	Christchurch Cashel St., Linwood	48 years 22 years	House of Mr. E. Smart	99/2638		21 April 1899	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
185	22 April 1899	William Townsend McClelland Mary Josephine McClelland	William Townsend Lucy Josephine McClelland 💍 1899/2179	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	69 36	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 8 years	St. Luke's Church	99/2175		22 April 1899	Ven. Archdeacon, Anglican
186	22 April 1899	Frederick Charles Malpas Margaret Ellen Wilkinson	Frederic Charles Malpas Margaret Ellen Wilkinson 💍 1899/2237	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 22	Christchurch Christchurch	10 days 3 years	St. Michael's Church	99/2043		22 April 1899	Rev. E. A. Fraser, Anglican

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).