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 847

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

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
231	26 May 1899	Thomas Watkins Elizabeth Berry	Thomas Harvey Elizabeth Barclay 💍 1900/5793 Thomas Harris Mary Elizabeth Harris 💍 1900/764 Thomas Martin Jane Elizabeth Rumney 💍 1899/2044 Thomas Lintern Elizabeth Sheppard 💍 1899/600 Thomas Brown Elizabeth White 💍 1899/4600 Thomas Tait Elizabeth Mary Taylor 💍 1899/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	38 24	Christchurch Christchurch	4 months 15 years	Registrar's Office, Christchurch		26 May 1899	Registrar J. M. Paterson
232	26 May 1899	James Alfred Kelly Brown Alice Ada Ellen Brown	James Alfred Heath Alice Ada Ellen Brown 💍 1899/2651	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	31 26	Sydenham Sydenham	24 years 24 years	House of Mrs Brown, Sydenham Street	99/2634	26 May 1899	Rev R. J. Murray, Wesleyan
233	26 May 1899	Marinus Hansen Emily Unwin	Marinus Hansen Emily Unwin 💍 1899/2196	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	21 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	Congregational Church, Worcester Street, Christchurch	99/2680	26 May 1899	Rev J. J. Baker, Congregational
234	27 May 1899	Herbert Francis Allen Adelaide Beatrice Willey	Herbert Francis Allen Adelaide Beatrice Willey 💍 1899/3449	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Domestic	24 23	Christchurch Addington	9 years 23 years	St. Mary's Church, Christchurch	99/3510	27 May 1899	Rev W. S. Beau, Anglican
235	29 May 1899	William Ross Nilsen M. McCallum	William Ross Helen McCallum 💍 1899/2195	Bachelor Spinster		48 37	Christchurch Opawa	16 years 2 months	House of Mr. M. McCallum	99/3670	29 May 1899	Rev R. Scott Allan, Presbyterian
236	29 May 1899	William John Truscott Susannah May Edwards	William John Truscott Susannah May Edwards 💍 1899/3575	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	28 22	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 5 years	House of Mr. C. Blyth, Gloucester Street, Christchurch	99/3529	29 May 1899	Rev A. Elmslie, Presbyterian
237	31 May 1899	Frank Arthur Fraser Alice Emily Fraser	Frank Athey Alice Emily Fraser 💍 1899/2181	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	99/2177	31 May 1899	Ven Arch Deigard, 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).