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 130

District of Whangarei Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar C. E. Nicholas

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
28	25 July 1899	John Alfred Slater Annie McLean	John Alfred Slater Annie McLean 💍 1899/3148	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	29 22	Whangarei Whangarei	7 years Life	Residence of Bride's Parents, Whangarei	99/3049		25 July 1899	Rev. B. F. Rothwell
29	16 August 1899	John Samuel Dent Harriett A Elfreda Macken	John Samuel Dent Henrietta Alfrida Macken 💍 1899/3149	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 37	Whangarei Whangarei	35 years 21 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Whangarei	99/3050		16 August 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
30	5 September 1899	Richard Cecil Moorsom Harrington Ethel Benstin Mair	Richard Cecil Moorson Harrington Ethel Brunslin Mair 💍 1899/3150	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 29	Ruatangata Whangarei	1 year Life	Christchurch, Whangarei	99/3051		5 September 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
31	6 September 1899	John Roberts Rebecca Barron	John Roberts Rebecca Barron 💍 1899/3147	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 19	Poroti Poroti	9 years 8 months	Registrar Office, Whangarei	99/3048	M. Barron, mother	6 September 1899	The Registrar
32	6 September 1899	Henry John Herbert Young Sophia Mary Ann Adams	Henry John Herbert Young Sophia Mary Ann Adams 💍 1899/3152	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 16	Otonga Otonga	18 years 4 years	Christchurch, Whangarei	99/3052	J.J. Adams, father	6 September 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
33	16 September 1899	Robert Bruce Howie Mary Ethel Florence Ferguson	Robert Bruce Howie Mary Florence Ethel Ferguson 💍 1899/2989	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 21	Kamo Tutukaka	6 months 12 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Ngunguru	99/3054		16 September 1899	Rev. J. H. Hawkes M.A.
34	22 September 1899	Harry Green Wilkinson Amelia Elizabeth Howie	Harry Green Wilkinson Amelia Elizabeth Horace 💍 1899/3153	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	Whangarei Whangarei	8 years 10 years	Residence of Bride's Parents, Whangarei	99/3053		22 September 1899	Rev. L. L. Cubitt
35	25 September 1899	George Louis Bradshaw Mary Catherine Le Boutillier	George Louis Bradshaw Mary Catherine Le Boutallier 💍 1899/3000	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 24	Kaikaraka Kaikaraka	3 years Life	Residence of Bride's Parents, Kaikaraka	99/3055		25 September 1899	Rev. J. H. Hawkes M.A.

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).