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 308

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar J W Mauleeson

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
37	18 January 1899	William John Dobson Marian McNabb	William John Dobson Marian McNabb 💍 1899/1159	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Fruiterer	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 years	Roman Catholic Church H. Mary Manchester St Chch	99/1203	18 January 1899	Rev M J Marnane Romanist
38	19 January 1899	Arthur Couton Simpson Ellen Muir	Arthur Overton Empson Ellen Muir 💍 1899/874	Widower Spinster	Laborer	44 32	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 18 years	St Michaels Church Chch	99/779	19 January 1899	Rev A W Averill Anglican
39	19 January 1899	Arthur Mead Annie Hayward	Arthur Mead Annie Hayward 💍 1899/840	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 23 years	Roman Catholic Church Barbadoes St. Chch	99/794	19 January 1899	Rev J. F. Richard Romanist
40	20 January 1899	Edwin Hawtin Lillian Maud Atkinson	Edwin Hawtin Lillian Maud Atkinson 💍 1899/799	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	34 21	Christchurch Christchurch	9 months 21 Years	Registrar Office Chch	99/725	20 January 1899	Registrar Marriages J W Mauleeson
41	23 January 1899	Henry Prebble Eliza Howe	Henry Penberthy Eliza Howe 💍 1899/800	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	34 27	Christchurch Christchurch	34 years 20 years	Registrars Office Chch	99/726	23 January 1899	Registrar Marriages J W Mauleeson
42	23 January 1899	Henri Michel Marshall Ella Mary Marriott Watson	Henry Meikel Marshall Ella Mary Marriott Watson 💍 1899/1151	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	18 Years 25 Years	St Johns Church Chch	99/1198	23 January 1899	Rev H C M Watson Anglican
43	23 January 1899	John Neave Elizabeth Kate Hancock	John Neave Elizabeth Kate Hancock 💍 1899/834	Bachelor Spinster	Boiler Maker	32 22	Sydenham Sydenham	18 years 18 years	St Michaels Church Chch	99/780	23 January 1899	Rev A W Averill Anglican
44	24 January 1899	Herbert James Williams Emily Florence Gertrude Hamilton	Herbert James Williams Emily Florence Gertrude Hamilton 💍 1899/845	Widower Spinster	Journalist	50 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 6 years	St Michaels Church Chch	99/781	24 January 1899	Rev A W Averill 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).