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 235

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 March 1899 Registrar F. 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
11	7 January 1899	William Thompson Ferguson Sarah Smith	William Thompson Ferguson Sarah Smith 💍 1899/562	Divorced decree absolute 3rd Aug 1898 Spinster	Storeman	29 25	Wellington Wellington	11 yrs 2 yrs	Registrars Office Wellington	99/505		7 January 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
12	9 January 1899	James Wood Middlemiss Sophia Ann Edwards	James Wood Middlemiss Sophia Ann Edwards 💍 1899/596	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	31 27	Levin Wellington	6 yrs 27 yrs	Wesley Church Taranaki St. Wellington	99/538		10 January 1899	Revd. Wm. Baumber
13	9 January 1899	Timothy Joseph Tracy Catherine Jane Quin	Timothy Joseph Tracy Catherine Jane Quin 💍 1899/605	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 22	Wellington Wellington	19 yrs 19 yrs	St Marys of the Angels Boulcott St. Wellington	99/547		9 January 1899	Revd Jno. Ainsworth
14	9 January 1899	Thomas Richard Prattley Louisa Gomez	Thomas Richard Prattley Louisa Gomez 💍 1899/709	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Storekeeper	27 37	Wellington Wellington	6 Mos 5 yrs	Trinity Church Rintoul St, Wellington	99/580		9 January 1899	Revd Albert C. Lawry
15	9 January 1899	Robert William Alexander Florence Augusta Skinner	Robert William Alexander Florence Augusta Skinner 💍 1899/594	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 18	Kilbirnie, Wellington Wellington	20 yrs 15 yrs	St Peters Church Wellington	99/536	Daniel Skinner Father	9 January 1899	Revd Allan M. Johnson
16	9 January 1899	William Dunphy Annie Jessie McMenamin	William Dunphy Annie Jessie McMenamin 💍 1899/563	Bachelor Spinster	Artilleryman	28 25	Wellington Lower Hutt	5 yrs 10 yrs	Registrars Office Wellington	99/506		9 January 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
17	9 January 1899	Alfred Pinker Catherine Roberts	Alfred Pinker Catherine Roberts 💍 1899/540	Widower Spinster	Teacher	58 23	Nuhaka, Wairoa H.B. Wellington	8 Mos 7 yrs	Registrars Office Wellington	99/507		9 January 1899	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
18	9 January 1899	George Henry Freeman Mary Ann Curran	George Henry Freeman Mary Ann Curran 💍 1899/604	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 30	Wellington Wellington	9 Mos 4 yrs	St Marys of the Angels Boulcott St Wellington	99/546		9 January 1899	Revd Jno Dogherty
19	10 January 1899	John James Cook Grace Matilda Macquaid	John James Cook Grace Matilda Macgraid 💍 1899/706	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	32 24	Wellington Wellington	24 yrs 2 yrs	St Thomas' Church Wellington	99/577		11 January 1899	Revd C. Fitzgerald
20	10 January 1899	James Murphy Mary Kelly	James Murphy Mary Kelly 💍 1899/451	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 31	Waverley Ballinasloe, Galway Ireland	9 yrs 1 yr	St Marys of the Angels Boulcott St Wellington	99/548		11 January 1899	Revd Jno M. Doherty

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).