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 932

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar F. J. Hall

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	29 May 1899	George McGregor Kennedy Grace Emily Charlotte Scott	George McGregor Kennedy Grace Emily Charlotte Scott 💍 1899/2502	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 years 24 years	South Dunedin Kensington	9 years 12 years	In the house of James George Walter Scott	99/2271		29 May 1899	Revd John Muirhead, Baptist Minister
209	31 May 1899	William Eskdale Anne Reid Arnott	William Eskdale Annie Reid Arnott 💍 1899/2496	Widower Spinster	Farmer	39 years 20 years	Dunedin North East Valley	3 days 1 week	In the house of Revd William Scorgie, Mornington	99/2440	George Nott, father of minor	31 May 1899	Revd W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
210	31 May 1899	James McCreadie Fanny Clarke	James McCreadie Fanny Clarke 💍 1899/2525	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	19 years 20 years	Dunedin North East Valley	7 years 3 days	In the house of Revd George Heighway, Dunedin	99/2470	Morrison McCreadie and Harry Clarke, fathers of minors	31 May 1899	Revd George Heighway, Congregational Minister
211	31 May 1899	Charles Thomas Brown Marian Finlay Denny	Charles Thomas Brown Marian Finlay Denny 💍 1899/2506	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 years 23 years	St Clair St Clair	6 days 10 years	In St Peters Church, Caversham	99/2475		31 May 1899	Revd B. M. King, Church of England Minister
212	31 May 1899	George Wells Margaret Ellen Oliphant Henderson	George Wells Margaret Ellen Oliphant Henderson 💍 1899/2766	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin	99/2701		31 May 1899	Revd C. G. Robinson, Church of England Minister
213	31 May 1899	John Loft Catherine McNamara	John Loft Catherine McNamara 💍 1899/2436	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	99/2429		31 May 1899	Revd F. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
214	1 June 1899	Arthur Bernard Smythe Maud Mary Baker	Arthur Bernard Smythe Maud Mary Baker 💍 1899/2485	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 years 33 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 1 week	In All Saints Church, Dunedin	99/2453		1 June 1899	Revd A. R. Fitchett, Church of England Minister

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).