Intentions to Marry, 1899 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840416, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole 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 009

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar E. H. Layard

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
460	22 July 1899	Charles Robert Hill Ellen Selina Finely	Charles Robert Hill Ellen Selina Finely 💍 1899/2859	Bachelor Spinster	Actor	31 21	Auckland Auckland	20 years 2 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	99/2860		22 July 1899	Very Rev. P. O'Reilly, Roman Catholic
461	24 July 1899	John Alexander Speid Jessie McLeod	John Alexander Speid Jessie McLeod 💍 1899/2872	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	56 36	Auckland (Waihoro) Auckland	1 week 3 1/2 years	St. Andrew's Manse, Alten Road	99/2874		24 July 1899	Rev. J. Milne, Presbyterian
462	24 July 1899	Arthur Edwin Poole Sarah Julia Gonzalis	Arthur Edwin Poole Sarah Julia Gonzulis 💍 1899/2917	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 22	Auckland Auckland	14 years 22 years	St. Benedict's Church	99/2890		24 July 1899	Rev. J. H. F. S. Gillan, Roman Catholic
463	24 July 1899	Albert Smith Emily Freeny	Albert Smith Emily Elspeth Freeny 💍 1899/2877	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	27 23	Auckland Auckland	27 years 23 years	House of Mr. A. Keenan, Coburg Street	99/2879		24 July 1899	Rev. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
464	24 July 1899	Edward Arthur Evans Carrie Ivy Maud Wardell	Edward Arthur Evans Carrie Ivy Maud Wardell 💍 1899/4502	Bachelor Spinster	Store-Keeper	25 18	Auckland (Awanui) Auckland	1 week 16 years	St. Matthew's Church, Auckland	99/4107	Violet McPhee, Mother	24 July 1899	Rev. L. Fitzgerald, Church of England
465	24 July 1899	Stephen John Knowles Eliza Payne	Stephen John Knowles Eliza Payne 💍 1899/4503	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman	26 26	Auckland Auckland	2 years 10 years	St. Matthew's Church	99/4108		24 July 1899	Rev. L. Fitzgerald, Church of England

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).