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 235

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar John Bates

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
72	12 August 1899	Henry Preston Bertha Volly	Henry Preston Bertha Voltz 💍 1899/3286	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 27	Fordell Fordell	5 years 20 years	Presbyterian Church, Whanganui	99/3281	12 August 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
73	16 August 1899	David Catnach Lind Agnes Park	David Catnack Lind Agnes Park 💍 1899/3296	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 24	Whanganui Matarawa	3 days 6 weeks	Church of England, Matarawa	99/3290	16 August 1899	R. Sermon, Church of England
74	18 August 1899	George Shepherd Clara Olive Ferry	George Shepherd Clara Arline Ferry 💍 1899/4386	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Whanganui Whanganui	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	In the residence of Mr. J. M. Ferry, Ridgway St., Whanganui	99/3400	18 August 1899	J. Bond, Wesleyan
75	21 August 1899	John William Emoney Mary Ann Salvin	John William Emeny Mary Ann Salvin 💍 1899/3287	Bachelor Spinster	Brick-maker	30 22	Whanganui Whanganui	15 months 6 years	In the residence of Mr. B. Salvin, Bell St., Whanganui	99/3282	21 August 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
76	29 August 1899	Alfred Idenage Holmes Ethel Hooper	Alfred Hencage Holmes Ethel Hooper 💍 1899/3288	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	21 21	Whanganui Whanganui	15 years 15 months	At the residence of Mr. Alice Hooper, Wilson St., Whanganui	99/3283	29 August 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
77	1 September 1899	James Walker Emily Robb	James Walker Emily Robb 💍 1899/3289	Widower Spinster	Laborer	38 26	Whanganui Whanganui	4 years 26 years	The Presbyterian Manse, Whanganui	99/3284	1 September 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
78	4 September 1899	John Brown Cameron Janet Caldwell	John Brown Cameron Janet Caldwell 💍 1899/3303	Bachelor Widow	Farmer, Laborer	39 39	Whanganui Whanganui	14 years 10 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	99/3274	4 September 1899	The Registrar

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).