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 391

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar J Wallace

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
48	13 February 1899	Jonathan Telford Sarah Jane Murphy	Jonathan Telford Sarah Jane Murphy 💍 1899/1195	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	55 years 35 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 4 years	In the house of Revd John J Lewis, Dunedin	99/966		13 February 1899	Revd J J Lewis, Wesleyan Minister
49	14 February 1899	John O'Leary Gertrude Minders	John Cleary Gertrude Winders 💍 1899/1315	Widower Spinster	Grocer	41 years 18 years	Dunedin Roslyn	25 years 18 years	In St Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	99/1233	Michael Minders, Father of Minor	14 February 1899	Revd P Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
50	14 February 1899	James Airey Alexandrina Sutherland	James Airey Alexanderina Sutherland 💍 1899/951	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 week	In St Patricks Church, South Dunedin	99/933		14 February 1899	Revd James Coffey, Roman Catholic Priest
51	15 February 1899	Edward Drake Helen Christina Hanson	Edward Drake Helen Christina Hanson 💍 1899/1200	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	30 years 32 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 32 years	In the Methodist Church, Dundas Street, Dunedin	99/970		15 February 1899	Revd W Laycock, Methodist Minister
52	16 February 1899	William Deans Milne Hetty Williams	William Deans Milne Hetty Williams 💍 1899/775	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	37 years 28 years	Caversham Wellington	35 years 10 years	In the house of Mrs Ellen Matilda Williams, Nairn Street, Wellington	99/694		16 February 1899	Revd James Paterson, Presbyterian Minister
53	16 February 1899	William Roulston Ellen Louisa Davys	William Roulston Ellen Louisa Davys 💍 1899/1065	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 26 years	In the house of John Winterscale Davys, Leith Street, Dunedin	99/978		16 February 1899	Revd W Saunders, Congregational Minister
54	16 February 1899	John Baxter McIntyre Janet Lydia Wright	John Baxter McIntyre Janet Lydia Wright 💍 1899/1203	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	30 years 24 years	Roslyn Roslyn	16 years 24 years	In the house of Mrs Elizabeth Hannah Wright, Roslyn	99/949		16 February 1899	Revd A R M Sutherland, 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).