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 237

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
31	19 January 1899	James Cashman Lizzie O'Sullivan	James Cashman Lizzie OSullivan 💍 1899/466	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	49 39	Wellington Wellington	18 years 20 years	St Marys of the Angels, Boulcott Street, Wellington	99/551		19 January 1899	Revd Thos Devoy
32	19 January 1899	Arthur David Blick Catherine Sharkey	Arthur David Blick Catherine Shackey 💍 1899/465	Bachelor Widow	Yardman	36 44	Wellington Wellington	4 years 8 years	St Marys of the Angels, Boulcott St, Wellington	99/550			Revd Thos Devoy
33	19 January 1899	Frederick William Austin Lucy Jane Backhouse	Frederick William Austin Lucy Jane Backhouse 💍 1899/453	Bachelor Widow	Pipemaker	33 27	Wellington Wellington	20 years 7 years	Residence of Mr John McCabe, 27 Epuni St, Wellington	99/558			Revd J. K. Elliott
34	20 January 1899	Robert Scott Fanny Baker	Robert Scott Fanny Baker 💍 1899/546	Bachelor Spinster	Grocers Assistant	24 25	Wellington Wellington	6 months 9 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/513		20 January 1899	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
35	23 January 1899	Archibald Park Marie Josephine Hare	Archibald Park Marie Josephine Hare 💍 1899/452	Widower Spinster	Veterinary Surgeon	55 26	Wellington Wellington	3 1/2 years 20 years	Manse, Pirie St, Wellington	99/557		23 January 1899	Revd J. K. Elliott
36	24 January 1899	Augustus Henry Baggarley Letitia Winifred Schultze	Augustus Henry Baggarley Letitia Winifred Schultze 💍 1899/774	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	29 22	Carterton Wellington	29 years 20 years	Residence of Mr C. W. Schultze, Banks Terrace, Wellington	99/693		24 January 1899	Revd Jas Paterson
37	24 January 1899	William Henry Parkes Maud Elizabeth Ross	William Henry Parkes Maude Elizabeth Ross 💍 1899/591	Bachelor Spinster	Medical Practitioner	34 30	Auckland Wellington	2 years 5 years	St Peters Church, Wellington	99/533			Right Revd Frederick Wallis, Bishop of Wellington
38	24 January 1899	Francis Clapham Jeannette Percival	Francis Clapham Jeanette Percival 💍 1899/687	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	26 19	Wellington Wellington	26 years 19 years	Residence of Mr W. Rix, 1 Howard St, Wellington	99/582	William Robert Percival - Father	27 January 1899	Revd W. J. Fernie
39	24 January 1899	Frank Hall Young Minnie Hannah Mauche Dryden	Frank Hall Young Minnie Hannah Blanche Dryden 💍 1899/545	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 25	Karori Karori	6 years 20 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	99/512		24 January 1899	J. W. Mansfield, Registrar
40	25 January 1899	William Gerrard Tickle Eleanor Amelia Whiting	William Gerrard Tickle Eleanor Amelia Whiting 💍 1899/454	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 31	Palmerston North Wellington	7 years 31 years	Residence of Mr Andrew Compton, Boulcott St, Wellington	99/559		25 January 1899	Revd J. K. Elliott

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).