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 144

District of Patea Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar Arnold William Mann

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
16	3 July 1899	William Dempster Margaret Amy Aitchison	William Dempster Margaret Amy Aitchison 💍 1899/3116	Bachelor Spinster	Dairy Factory Manager Dressmaker	25 22	Patea Patea	9 months 5 years	Residence of William Aitchison, Patea	99/3089	3 July 1899	Rev. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian
17	27 July 1899	John William Hill Sarah Elizabeth Baldwin	John William Hill Sarah Elizabeth Baldwin 💍 1899/3115	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 24	Patea Patea	4 days 7 days	Wesleyan Church, Patea	99/3088	27 July 1899	Rev. T. R. Hammond, Wesleyan
18	8 August 1899	William Dawson Forbes Mary Barbara Linger	William Dawson Forbes Mary Barbour Singer 💍 1899/3117	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Kakaramea Patea	6 months 7 days	Residence of William Gradsly, Patea	99/3090	8 August 1899	Rev. Thomas Macdonald, Presbyterian
19	21 August 1899	Patrick Bowfield Eliza Beynon	Patrick Bowfield Eliza Beynon 💍 1899/3118	Widower Widow	Miner	52 43	Patea Patea	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Patea	99/3091	21 August 1899	Registrar
20	24 August 1899	Parata Whatu Nire Mahu	Parata Whatu Hine Mahu 💍 1899/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Native	30 22	Parirua, Patea Patea	3 years 3 years	Registrar's Office, Patea	99/3092	24 August 1899	Registrar
21	11 September 1899	Arthur Chapman Amy Gertrude Monteith Hunter	Arthur Chapman Amy Gertrude Monteith Hunter 💍 1899/3096	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	27 20	Patea Patea	4 days 3 years	Church of England, Patea	99/3093	11 September 1899	Rev. C. C. Harper, Church of England
22	21 September 1899	Sydney Andrews Amy Isabell Peacock	Sydney Andrews Amy Isabel Peacock 💍 1899/3097	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 21	Patea Patea	4 days 6 months	Church of England, Patea	99/3094	21 September 1899	Rev. C. C. Harper, 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).