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 304

District of Greymouth Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar Benjamin Harpe

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
18	1 July 1899	Francis William Allen Susan Lawson	Francis William Allen Susan Lawson 💍 1899/3376	Bachelor Spinster	Saw mill hand	29 20	Kaimata Kaimata	18 months 4 months	The Church of England, Greymouth	99/3453		1 July 1899	Rev. Geo. W. York
19	3 July 1899	William Humphry Boncher Alice Maude Mary Pascoe	William Henry Boucher Alice Maude Mary Pascoe 💍 1899/3490	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 23	Rutherglen Rutherglen	6 months 3 years	The residence of Mr. John Pascoe	99/3451		3 July 1899	Rev. L. Harlick
20	24 July 1899	James McBryde Jane Congalton formerly Horn	James McBryde Jane Congalton 💍 1899/3489	Widower Widow	Miner	50 47	Jacksons Jacksons	4 days 4 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Greymouth	99/3450		24 July 1899	Benjamin Harpe, Registrar
21	25 July 1899	John Lewis Annie Elizabeth Boddy	John Lewis Annie Elizabeth Boddy 💍 1899/5385	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	23 23	Greymouth Greymouth	15 months 23 years	The Wesleyan Church at Greymouth	99/3452		25 July 1899	Rev. L. Harlick
22	3 August 1899	Thomas Dudley Mary Ann Johnston	Thomas Duckworth Matilda Johnston 💍 1899/3539	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	29 20	Kaiata Kaiata	1 year 10 years	The Roman Catholic Church, Greymouth	99/3456	Thomas Johnston, father	3 August 1899	Rev. D. P. Parent
23	8 August 1899	Alfred Grey Ashton Alice Amelia Horn	Alfred Grey Ashton Alice Amelia Horn 💍 1899/3387	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	32 29	Greymouth Greymouth	32 years 10 years	The Church of England, Greymouth	99/3454		8 August 1899	Rev. Geo. W. York
24	18 August 1899	Joseph Whitham Ellen Maria Sargison	Joseph Witham Ellen Maria Sargison 💍 1899/3395	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Guard	35 24	Greymouth Hokitika	1 year 15 years	The Anglican Church at Hokitika	99/3458		18 August 1899	Rev. H. J. Hawkins

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).