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 248

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar J.W. Mansfield

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
131	27 March 1899	Victor Alberte Hegander Laura Jane Smith	Victor Albert Alexander Laura Jane Smith 💍 1899/705	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 24	Wellington Christchurch	4 months 4 years	Residence of J. O. Shorland 83 Austin St. Wellington	99/576		28 March 1899	Revd T. F. Jones
132	28 March 1899	James Russell Mary Samson Black	James Russell Mary Samson Black 💍 1899/1266	Bachelor Widow	Grocer	25 26	Wellington Wellington	20 years 15 years	Rev C. S. Oggs Manse Wellington Terrace Wellington	99/1184		28 March 1899	Revd C. S. Ogg
133	28 March 1899	William Ludwig Krohn Mary Taylor	William Leidwig Otto Krohn Mary Taylor 💍 1899/1956 William James Trewern May Taylor 💍 1899/4075	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	26 27	Wellington Wellington	5 years 7 years	St Marys of the Angels Church Boulcott St Wellington	99/1911		28 March 1899	Revd Thos Deboy
134	29 March 1899	Thomas Henry Williamson Christina Jane Steen	Thomas Henery Williamson Christina Jane Steen 💍 1899/690	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	26 24	Wellington Wellington	25 years 14 years	Residence of Mrs Shannon 8 Oxford Terrace Wellington	99/585		29 March 1899	Revd Horatio J. Walker
135	29 March 1899	Richard Maslen Robertson Elizabeth Keen	Richard Maslin Robertson Elizabeth Keen 💍 1899/768	Bachelor Spinster	Coppersmith	28 29	Wellington Dunedin	11 months 7 years	St Marks Church Wellington	99/688		29 March 1899	Revd R. Coffey
136	30 March 1899	Thomas John Gregory Lena Campbell	Thomas John Gregory Lena Campbell 💍 1899/2165	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	25 20	Wellington Wellington	3 1/2 years 2 years	Residence of Alex Campbell 5 Mulgrave St Wellington	99/2094	Alex Campbell Father	30 March 1899	Revd Alex Thomson
137	30 March 1899	Morris William Dallas Annie Jane Brown	Moris William Dallas Annie Jane Brown 💍 1899/698	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 19	Wellington Dunedin	4 months 16 years	Residence of Revd W. C. Evans Ellice Street Wellington	99/592	Martha Stewart Mother	30 March 1899	Revd W. C. Evans
138	30 March 1899	Ben Gwilliam Mary Ann Fleet	Ben Gwilliam Mary Ann Fleet 💍 1899/1981 Alfred James MacMillan Mary Ann Fleet 💍 1899/2466	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 23	Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	12 years 23 years	St James Church Lower Hutt	99/1660		30 March 1899	Revd Joshua Jones
139	30 March 1899	Frank Lewis Isabella Crawford Gordon	Frank Lewis Isabella Crawford Gordon 💍 1899/3057	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 31	New Plymouth New Plymouth	6 months 15 years	Residence of Mr R. H. Lewis Daniel Street Wellington	99/2769		4 April 1899	Revd H. C. Lawry

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).