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 393

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar W J O'Call

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
62	23 February 1899	Charles William Hannah Catherine Frances Carew	Charles William Hannah Catherine Frances Carew 💍 1899/1004	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 19	Dunedin Dunedin	30 years 3 weeks	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	99/911	Marie Constance Baird, Mother of minor	23 February 1899	W J O'Call, Registrar of Marriages
63	27 February 1899	Leonard McDonald Patrick Alice Jane Ruston	Leonard McDonald Patrick Alice Jane Ruston 💍 1899/1134	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 24	Dunedin Dunedin	23 years 24 years	In the house of Selina Ruston, Castle Street, Dunedin	99/1248		27 February 1899	Revd D K McIntyre, Presbyterian Minister
64	27 February 1899	Albert Paul Leyden Isabella Halliday	Albert Paul Leyden Isabella Halliday 💍 1899/961	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 34	Dunedin Dunedin	6 days 16 days	In St Matthews Church, Dunedin	99/942		27 February 1899	Revd W Curzon-Siggers, Church of England Minister
65	28 February 1899	Thomas William Cross Jinnie Garrett	Thomas William Cross Jinnie Garrett 💍 1899/1005	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	23 21	Maori Hill Maori Hill	10 years 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	99/912		28 February 1899	W J O'Call, Registrar of Marriages
66	1 March 1899	Samuel Couliston Fairbairn Margaret Walker	Samuel Houliston Fairbairn Margaret Walker 💍 1899/2481 James Gauld Junr Margaret Walker 💍 1899/2737	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Revd Isaac Jolly, South Dunedin	99/2749		1 March 1899	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
67	1 March 1899	Henry Albert Griffiths Mary Elizabeth Williams	Henry Albert Griffiths Mary Elizabeth Williams 💍 1899/1045 Henry James Hickton Alice Elizabeth Williams 💍 1899/1411	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	23 19	Caversham Dunedin	23 years 14 years	In the house of Henry Albert Griffiths, Caversham	99/982	Charles Thomas Williams, Father of minor	1 March 1899	Revd D Dutton, Presbyterian 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).