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 339

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar J W Northcroft

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
390	18 September 1899	Ernest Walter Hill Ruby Rachel Cowan	Ernest Walter Hill Ruby Rachel Cowan 💍 1899/3581	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	27 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 20 years	House of Mr Cowan, Riccarton	99/3578	Matthew Cowan, Father	18 September 1899	Rev W. T. P. Winter, Anglican
391	19 September 1899	Robert John McLean Jane Armstrong Bunting	Robert John McLean Jane Armstrong Bunting 💍 1899/3432	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 18	Christchurch Christchurch	10 years 10 years	Registrars Office, Ch Ch	99/3493	William McLean, Father; James Bunting, Father	19 September 1899	Registrar of Marriages, J W Northcroft
392	19 September 1899	Henry McClelland Alice Addington	Henry McClelland Alice Addington 💍 1899/3703	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	28 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 20 years	House of Mr. Geo: Addington, Courtenay	99/3576		19 September 1899	Rev J. Clover, P. Methodist
393	20 September 1899	George James Maddock Jane Elizabeth Searle	George James Maddock Elizabeth Jane Searle 💍 1899/3796	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 5 years	Anglican Church, West Melton	99/3951		20 September 1899	Rev J M Whitelaw, Anglican
394	20 September 1899	Charles Christian Lyons Sarah Anne Elizabeth Lyons	Charles Christian Sarah Ann Elizabeth Lyons 💍 1899/5354	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	41 29	Schooner Josephine Christchurch	13 years	Pro Cathedral, Barbadoes St, Ch Ch	99/5332		20 September 1899	Very Rev T. Le Menant des Chesnais, Roman Catholic
395	22 September 1899	Ernst Schwebs Mary Booth	Ernest Schoele Mary Booth 💍 1899/3834	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	38 32	Christchurch Christchurch	8 months 1 week	St Johns Church, Ch Ch	99/3965		22 September 1899	Rev H C M Watson, Anglican
396	23 September 1899	William Dawson Martha Margaret Holkman	William Dawson Martha Margaret Kolkman 💍 1899/132	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 20	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 20 years	Wesleyan Church, St Albans	99/3590	Frederick Holkman, Father	23 September 1899	Rev W Lee, 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).