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 148

District of Waimate Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar J. Ding

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
163	24 July 1899	Thomas Tait Elizabeth Mary Taylor	Thomas Tait Elizabeth Mary Taylor 💍 1899/3103	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	26 18	Kapuni Kapuni	10 years 17 years	Residence of Mr. George Taylor, Kapuni	99/3100	G. Taylor, father of bride	24 July 1899	Revd. W. H. Philip, Presbyterian Minister
164	8 August 1899	Richard Kennard Edgcumbe Annie Maria Gallaher	Richard Kennard Edgecombe Annie Maria Gallaher 💍 1899/3101	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Duties	42 26	Patea Mangatoho	17 years 6 months	Residence of Mr. J. Mangatoho	99/3098		8 August 1899	Revd. Thomas Macdonald, Presbyterian Minister
165	9 August 1899	Henry Alexander Stevenson Carrie Selva Stevenson	Henry Alexander Stevenson Carrie Silva 💍 1899/3104	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housemaid	25 26	Manaia Manaia	8 years 8 years	Residence of Mr. H. A. Stevenson, Manaia	99/3101		9 August 1899	Revd. W. H. Philip, Presbyterian Minister
166	9 August 1899	Samuel David Ross Elsie Albania Christiansen	James David Ross Elsie Maria Christiansen 💍 1899/3105	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Nil	22 21	Inaha Okaiawa	2 years 13 years	Residence of Mr. James Christiansen, Okaiawa	99/3102		9 August 1899	Revd. W. H. Philip, Presbyterian Minister
167	21 August 1899	John Bryson Murdoch Mary Jane Cameron	John Bryson Murdoch Margaret Cameron 💍 1899/3102	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	27 27	Okaiawa Okaiawa	18 years 15 years	Residence of Mr. W. Cameron, Okaiawa	99/3099		21 August 1899	Revd. T. Macdonald, Presbyterian Minister
168	23 August 1899	Leonard Reid Hodson Mary Mabel Barnard	Leonard Reid Dodson Mary Mabel Egan 💍 1899/3107	Bachelor Widow	Brewer Barmaid	31 28	Hawera Hawera	10 months 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Hawera	99/3103		23 August 1899	Revd. W. H. Philip, Presbyterian Minister
169	14 September 1899	Walter Francis Evans Hilda Clara Cooper	Walter Francis Evans Hilda Clara Cooper 💍 1899/3100	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper Nil	22 19	Auckland Parnell	3 years Life	Registrar's Office, Manaia	99/3097	Lucy Eliza Cooper, mother	14 September 1899	J. Ding, Registrar of Marriages, Manaia
170	29 September 1899	William Sutton Green Rebecca Glentworth	William Sutton Rebecca Grace Glenthworth 💍 1899/3108	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic Servant	42 21	Manaia Manaia	15 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church, Manaia	99/3104		29 September 1899	Revd. W. H. Philip, Presbyterian Minister

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).