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 415

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
323	19 August 1899	Charles Fisher Johnson Emily Matilda Brown	Charles Fisher Johnson Emily Matilda Brown 💍 1899/3727 Charles Leonard Dearsley Emily Maria Brown 💍 1899/602	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	30 years 27 years	Mornington Abbotsford	6 weeks 27 years	In the house of Alexander Brown	99/3738		19 August 1899	Revd S. O. Hampton Church of England Minister
324	19 August 1899	Walter Hislop Young Fanny Ross Burt	Walter Hislop Young Fanny Ross Burt 💍 1899/3634	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	28 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 21 years	In the house of Alexander Burt, York Place	99/3677		19 August 1899	Revd W. Hewitson Presbyterian Minister
325	19 August 1899	James Wright Patton Frances Gertrude Luscombe	James Wright Patton Frances Gertrude Luscombe 💍 1899/3540	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	20 years 22 years	Dunedin Mornington	20 years 11 years	In the house of Nicholas Luscombe	99/3704	James Patton Father of Minor	19 August 1899	Revd J. Lewis Wesleyan Minister
326	21 August 1899	John O'Donnell Catherine Donohue	John O'Donnell Catherine Donoghue 💍 1899/3712	Widower Spinster	Farmer	45 years 43 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	1 week 4 years	In St Patricks Church	99/3731		21 August 1899	Revd James Coffey Roman Catholic Priest
327	22 August 1899	Thomas Brown Julia Euphemia Watson	Thomas Brown Julia Euphemia Watson 💍 1899/3553	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	18 years 16 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In the house of Mrs Harriet Hirkin, South Dunedin	99/3693	Robert Brown father of minor. Williena Watson mother of minor	22 August 1899	Revd T. G. Brooke Wesleyan Minister
328	23 August 1899	William John Willis Mary Blackie	William John Willis Mary Blackie 💍 1899/3546	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 years 18 years	Ravensbourne Dunedin	17 years 3 years	In the house of William John Willis, Ravensbourne	99/3709	Margaret Blackie, mother of minor	23 August 1899	Revd W. M. Fell Congregational Minister
329	23 August 1899	William Henry Mitchell Margaret Ann Bolitho	William Henry Mitchell Margaret Ann Bolitho 💍 1899/3554	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Wesleyan Church South	99/3694		23 August 1899	Revd T. G. Brooke Wesleyan 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).