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 433

District of Gore Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar Theodor King

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
18	14 July 1899	William Baker Mary Redford	William Baker Mary Radford 💍 1899/3716	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 21	Gore Gore	14 days 14 days	Residence of Mrs Edward Cady at Gore	99/3750	14 July 1899	Rev C A Lyon, Congregational Clergyman, Gore
19	28 July 1899	Matthew Masterton Ellen Clarke	Matthew Masterton Helen Clarke 💍 1899/3657	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	42 37	Pukerau Clinton	5 years 30 yrs	Registrars Office Clinton	99/3793	28 July 1899	Registrar of marriages at Popotunoa
20	7 August 1899	William Martin Margaret Smyth	William Martin Margaret Smyth 💍 1899/3715	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	35 32	Gore Gore	18 yrs 14 yrs	Residence of Mr John Smyth, Gore	99/3749	7 August 1899	Rev John Jory, Wesleyan Clergyman, Gore
21	8 August 1899	Walpole Arthur Fendall Ellen Sheppard	Walpole Arthur Fendall Ellen Sheppard 💍 1899/3718	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	27 23	Gore Dunedin	3 yrs 2 days	Church of England Gore	99/3752	8 August 1899	Rev A R D Tosswill, English Church Clergyman, Gore
22	8 August 1899	Charles Ernest Webster Louisa Margaret Bell	Charles Ernest Webster Louisa Margaret Bell 💍 1899/134	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	37 32	Gore Gore	4 days 13 yrs	English Church at Mandeville	99/3753	8 August 1899	Rev A R D Tosswill, English Church Clergyman, Gore
23	11 August 1899	Hendry William Hay Ada Helena Downs	Hendry William Hay Ada Helena Downes 💍 1899/3536	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	32 25	Gore Dunedin	3 yrs 4 months	St Matthews English Church, Dunedin	99/3700	11 August 1899	Rev WS Curzon Siggers MA, English Church Clergyman, Dunedin
24	15 August 1899	Thomas Ritchie Margaret Buckingham	Thomas Ritchie Margaret Buckingham 💍 1899/3717	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	54 52	Gore Gore	3 days 3 days	R.C. Presbytery, Gore	99/3751	15 August 1899	Rev P ODonnell, R.C. Clergyman, Gore

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).