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 397

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar W. 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
86	16 March 1899	Lawrence Peter Stevens Junior Jane Dunlop Rutherford-Sneddon	Lawrence Peter Stevens Jane Dunlop Rutherford Sneddon 💍 1899/1049	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	25 years 20 years	Dunedin Mornington	15 years 7 years	In the house of Thomas Sneddon, Mornington	99/986	Thomas Sneddon father of Minor	16 March 1899	Reverend W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
87	16 March 1899	Frank Herbert King Helen Maria Greenslade	Frank Herbert King Helen Maria Greenslade 💍 1899/1130	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	38 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 5 years	In Saint Pauls Cathedral	99/1246		16 March 1899	Reverend Harold J. Brooke, Church of England Minister
88	18 March 1899	John Anderson Gilruth Jeannie Maclean McKay	John Anderson Gilruth Jeannie McLean McKay 💍 1899/1325	Bachelor Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon	28 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Charles Thomas Paterson, Grant Street, Dunedin	99/1242		18 March 1899	Reverend Doctor Waddell, Presbyterian Minister
89	21 March 1899	George Alexander Kellan Elizabeth Murray	George Alexander Kellan Elizabeth Murray 💍 1899/1206	Bachelor Spinster	French Polisher	27 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	26 years 9 years	In the Trinity Church, Dunedin	99/952		21 March 1899	Reverend W. Ready, Wesleyan Minister
90	21 March 1899	Walter Brown Graham Jean Haig	Walter Brown Graham Jean Haig 💍 1899/1052	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	31 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 7 years	In All Saints Church, Dunedin	99/989		21 March 1899	Reverend A. R. Fitchett, Church of England Minister
91	21 March 1899	Norman Faris Ethel Annie Low	Norman Faris Ethel Annie Low 💍 1899/1196	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	18 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 years 4 months	In Saint Peters Church, Caversham	99/948	Edith Henrietta Prudence Loring Guardian of Minor, Charles Low father of minor	21 March 1899	Reverend B. M. King, Church of England Minister
92	21 March 1899	John McPherson Campbell Kate Emily Chase	John McPherson Campbell Kate Emily Chase 💍 1899/2712	Bachelor Spinster	Customs Officer	29 years 24 years	Roslyn Dunedin	19 years 17 years	In Saint Pauls Cathedral, Dunedin	99/2695		21 March 1899	Reverend C. J. Robinson, 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).