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 834

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 June 1899 Registrar J. Maunsell

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
158	10 April 1899	Henry Schnele Adelaide Naomi Bateman	Harry Schnell Adelaide Naomi Bateman 💍 1899/2687	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	28 32	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 14 days	St. Saviours Church	99/2786		10 April 1899	Rev. Z. A. Scott, Anglican
159	10 April 1899	Ernest Edward Heywood Kitty Counton	Ernest Edward Heywood Kitty Overton 💍 1899/2187	Bachelor Spinster	Customs Agent	28 28	Christchurch Prebbleton	28 years 28 years	All Saints Church	99/2182		10 April 1899	Rev. J. Blackburn, Anglican
160	10 April 1899	Charles Ives Harper Mabel Agnes Harper	Charles Ives Mabel Agnes Harper 💍 1899/2698	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman Dressmaker	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 19 years	St. Matthews Church	99/2682	Agnes Harper, mother	10 April 1899	Rev. H. Williams, Anglican
161	10 April 1899	James Indale Florence Esther Indale	James Udale Florence Easton 💍 1899/2702	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	38 21	Heathcote Christchurch	1 year 3 days	House of Mr. Indale, Heathcote Valley	99/2686		10 April 1899	Rev. C. H. Lorret, Anglican
162	10 April 1899	Claude Howell Short Beatrice Emily Short	Claude Howell Beatrice Emily Short 💍 1899/2262	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	29 22	Christchurch Avonside	29 years 22 years	Holy Trinity Church	99/2195		10 April 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
163	11 April 1899	Edward Harrison Simpson Eva Simpson	Edward Harrison Eva Simpson 💍 1899/2293	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Tailoress	28 26	St. Albans St. Albans	28 years 5 years	Wesleyan Church	99/2230		11 April 1899	Rev. W. Lee, Wesleyan
164	11 April 1899	Henry Fuller Palmer Lucy Jane Palmer	Harry Fuller Lucy Jane Palmer 💍 1899/2295	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman Domestic	31 28	Christchurch Lincoln	12 years 6 years	St. Stephens Church	99/2231		11 April 1899	Rev. Arch. Thorpe, Anglican
165	11 April 1899	Frank William Kerr Amelia Pearse Kerr	Frank William Ault Amelia Pearse Kerr 💍 1899/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 30	Christchurch Fendalton	9 years 1 year	St. Barnabas Church	99/2000		11 April 1899	Rev. S. Hamilton, 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).