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 328

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar J M Patterson

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
316	29 July 1899	John William Moir Ruth McLaughlin	John William Moir Ruth McLaughlin 💍 1899/3435	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 19	Linwood Linwood	12 Years 4 months	Registrar's Office Chch	99/3478	Annie Affleck Mother	29 July 1899	Registrar Marriages J M Patterson
317	31 July 1899	William John Wilding Sarah Jane McNicholl	William John Wilding Sarah Jane McNicholl 💍 1899/3441	Widower Widow	Designer House Keeper	about 45 42	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 26 years	Registrar's Office Chch	99/3479		31 July 1899	Registrar Marriages J M Patterson
318	3 August 1899	Samuel Dick Bell Jessie Scott	Samuel Dick Jessie Scott 💍 1899/3463	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Tailoress	24 22	Woolston Sydenham	23 years 5 years	House of Mrs Kiping, Gladstone St Chch	99/3523		3 August 1899	Rev R. Scott Allan, Presbyterian
319	4 August 1899	Arthur Cecil Robertson Ruby Mildred Buckley	Arthur Cecil Rolleston Ruby Mildred Buckley 💍 1899/3697	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	31 26	Christchurch Christchurch	29 Years 4 Years	St Lukes Church Chch	99/3571		4 August 1899	Ven Archd'n Lingard, Anglican
320	4 August 1899	Richard John Geary Emily Elizabeth Marshall	Richard John Guy Emily Elizabeth Marshall 💍 1899/3601	Widower Widow	Miner	42 38	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 3 years	St Johns Church Woolston	99/3586		4 August 1899	Rev C H Gosset, Anglican
321	4 August 1899	Alexander Joseph Malone Minnie Dalwood	Alexander Joseph Malone Minnie Dalwood 💍 1899/3439	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 Years 21 Years	Pro Cathedral, Barbadoes St Chch	99/3499		4 August 1899	Rev. Fr Le Menant des Chesnais, Romanist
322	4 August 1899	Thomas Bunting Elizabeth Caroline Lewis	Thomas Bunting Elizabeth Caroline Lewis 💍 1899/3708	Widower Widow	Manufacturer	39 35	Christchurch Christchurch	15 Years 4 Years	Church Good Shepherd Phillipstown	99/3558		4 August 1899	Rev E. Ensor, Anglican
323	7 August 1899	Walter Clark Butcher Mabel Thompson	Walter Clark Mabel Thompson 💍 1899/4085	Bachelor Spinster	Metal Polisher Machinist	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	5 years 2 years	House of Wm Thompson, St Asaph St Linwood	99/4807		7 August 1899	Rev R. J. Murray, Wesleyan

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).