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 246

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar F M 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
111	15 March 1899	David Fredk McGinnity Edith Elizabeth Payne	Daniel Alfred McGinnity Edith Elizabeth Payne 💍 1899/1973	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 19	Wellington Wellington	7 years 19 years	St Peters Church Wellington	99/1904	Edwin Charles James Frederick Chilton Payne, Father	15 March 1899	Revd W. C. Waters
112	16 March 1899	Joseph Harold Barr Effie May Jones	Joseph Harold Burr Effie May Jones 💍 1899/697	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	26 22	Wellington Wellington	3 years 2 years	Residence of Mrs E. E. Jones, Rosina Terrace, Wellington	99/574		16 March 1899	Revd T. F. Jones
113	16 March 1899	Harold Ward Mary Johnston Brodlay	Harold Wand Mary Johnston Brodlay 💍 1899/607	Bachelor Spinster	Theatrical Theatrical	22 21	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars Office Wellington	99/526		17 March 1899	F M Mansfield, Registrar
114	17 March 1899	Robert George Ellaby Ida Philadelphia Edwards	Robert George Mabey Ada Philadelphia Edwards 💍 1899/608	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Upper Hutt Mungaroa	23 years 18 years	Registrars Office Wellington	99/527	Thomas Edwards, Father	21 March 1899	F M Mansfield, Registrar
115	17 March 1899	Thomas Joseph Schofield Louisa Louserie Marlton	Thomas Joseph Schofield Louisa Bouverice Marlon 💍 1899/3272	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	27 26	Wellington Kilbirnie, Wellington	9 years 25 years	Wesleyan Church Kilbirnie	99/3327		17 March 1899	Revd Wm Baumber
116	17 March 1899	George Albert Jorgensen Catherine Kirk	Albert George Jorgensen Catherine Kirk 💍 1899/4876	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk Dressmaker	26 30	Wellington Wellington	26 years 4 years	Revd J. K. Elliotts house Wellington			Certificate not yet issued
117	20 March 1899	John Thomas Oldrey Annie Newman	John Thomas Oldrey Annie Newman 💍 1899/609	Bachelor Married Deserted by husband John Newman June 1878	Plasterer Boardinghouse keeper	45 49	Wellington Wellington	18 months 1 year	Registrars Office Wellington	99/528		20 March 1899	F. M. Mansfield, Registrar
118	21 March 1899	Decimus Rowe Mary Graham	Decimus Rowe Mary Graham 💍 1899/601	Bachelor Spinster	Bicycle Agent	24 23	Wellington Wellington	6 years 7 years	Residence of Mrs J Graham 252 Willis St Wellington	99/543		22 March 1899	Revd Wm Baumber
119	22 March 1899	Leonard Evelyn Fotherill Emma Harriet Carey	Leonard Evelyn Cotterill Emma Harriett Carey 💍 1899/767	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	32 28	Tokomaru Bay Wellington	5 years 2 years	St Marks Church Wellington	99/687		22 March 1899	Revd R. Coffey
120	22 March 1899	Henry Wilton Mabel Violeh Johnson	Henry Wilton Mabel Violet Johnson 💍 1899/1938	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 21	Wellington Wellington	25 years 3 years	Residence of Mr John Wilson Berhampore Wellington	99/1942			Revd Wm Shirer

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).