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 842

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

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
208	13 May 1899	Henry Dewey Lowry Constance Fien	Henry Dewey Lowry Constance Finn 💍 1899/2215	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Clerk	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 1 week	St. Michaels Church	99/2145		13 May 1899	Rev. C. A. Fraer, Anglican
209	15 May 1899	Boughton Crowther Rosa Jepson		Bachelor Spinster	Cook Tailoress	29 28	Christchurch St. Albans	5 months 2 years	House of Mr. Treymore, St. Albans	99/2188		15 May 1899	Rev. J. Drumin, Presbyterian
210	15 May 1899	Noah Cleff Alice Hardacre	Noah Clegg Alice Nankivell 💍 1899/2720	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 18	Christchurch New Brighton	25 years 10 years	Anglican Church	99/2680	Father	15 May 1899	Rev. F. R. Elwood, Anglican
211	16 May 1899	George Daniel Compton Emma Johnston	George Daniel Compton Emma Johnson 💍 1899/2133	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 27	Christchurch Christchurch	28 years 27 years	Registrars Office	99/2128		16 May 1899	J. M. Parkerson, Registrar of Marriages
212	16 May 1899	Thomas James Hunter Lillian Eva Parkes	Thomas James Hunter Lillian Eva Parkes 💍 1899/2283	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 22 years	Wesleyan Church, East Belt	99/2211		16 May 1899	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
213	16 May 1899	George William Smith Eliza Emily Griese	George William Smith Eliza Emily Guise 💍 1899/2216	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Teller	33 33	Wellington Christchurch	2 years 2 years	St. Michaels Church	99/2146		16 May 1899	Rev. C. A. Fraer, Anglican
214	17 May 1899	Andrew Christopher Whittington Emma Whittington	Andrew Christopher Emma Whittington 💍 1899/3689	Bachelor Widow	Miner	42 43	Christchurch Linwood	20 years 30 years	House of Mrs. Whittington, Linwood	99/3563		17 May 1899	Rev. C. Porter, Wesleyan
215	17 May 1899	George William Holland Ruth Agnes Pannett	George William Holland Ruth Agnes Pannett 💍 1899/2299	Widower Spinster	Farmer	49 39	Christchurch Lincoln	3 days 39 years	Baptist Church	99/2213		17 May 1899	Rev. Z. Richards, Baptist

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).