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 488

District of Tokomairiro Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar Robert Charles Black

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
826	10 July 1899	Arthur John Clarke Elizabeth Harvey	Arthur John Clarke Elizabeth Harvey 💍 1899/3755	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 30	Lovells Flat Lovells Flat	14 months 6 weeks	House of Mr Henry Harvey, Lovells Flat	99/3804		10 July 1899	Rev. P. B. Fraser
827	10 July 1899	Charles Lewis Grant Ellen Mary Nolan	Charles Lewis Grant Ellen Mary Nolan 💍 1899/5413	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Home duties	25 26	Milton Milton	25 years 12 years	House of Mrs Nolan, Milton	99/5150		10 July 1899	Rev. Jas. O'Neill
828	17 July 1899	Mark Adam Scott Ellen Bruce McLeod	Mark Adam Scott Ellen Bruce McLeod 💍 1899/36	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	30 23	Milton Milton	27 years 23 years	House of Mrs Susan McLeod, North Branch Milton	99/3808		17 July 1899	Rev. J. A. Somerville
829	17 July 1899	John Rowland Paul Janet Stewart McMurtrie	John Rowland Paul Janet Stewart McMurtrie 💍 1899/3736	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	32 26	Milton Milton	6 years 26 years	House of Mr T. McMurtrie, Milton	99/3809		17 July 1899	Rev. J. Waters
830	31 July 1899	James Pettigrew Janet Marshall Mackie	James Pettigrew Janet Marshall Mackie 💍 1899/3737	Bachelor Spinster	Dredgeman Home duties	26 22	Manuka Creek Manuka Creek	26 years 6 years	House of Thomas Mackie, Manuka Creek	99/3810		31 July 1899	Rev. J. S. Reid
831	2 August 1899	Adam Stewart Jane Shaw Patterson	Adam Stewart Jane Shaw Patterson 💍 1899/3756	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	25 23	Hillend Lovells Flat	3 years 10 years	House of William Patterson, Lovells Flat	99/3805		2 August 1899	Rev. P. B. Fraser
832	19 August 1899	Samuel Clarke Agnes Harvey	Samuel Clarke Agnes Harvey 💍 1899/3757	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	23 26	Lovells Flat Lovells Flat	2 years 26 years	House of Henry Harvey, Lovells Flat	99/3806		19 August 1899	Rev. P. B. Fraser
833	26 August 1899	Christopher Robson Isabella Robson	Christopher Robinson Isabella Robson 💍 1899/3758	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	25 21	Milton Lovells Flat	25 years 21 years	House of Robert Robson, Lovells Flat	99/3807		26 August 1899	Rev. P. B. Fraser
834	12 September 1899	Herbert Swinton Dickson Eva Paul	Herbert Swinton Dickson Eva Paul 💍 1899/3738	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Weaver	22 18	Milton Milton	22 years 16 years	House of John Paul, Fairfax, Milton	99/3811	John Paul, father	12 September 1899	Rev. J. Waters
835	30 September 1899	William Seed Mary Tough	William Seed Mary Tough 💍 1899/5163	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Home duties	30 20	Milton Milton	30 years 20 years	House of John Tough, Milton	99/5151		30 September 1899	Rev. J. Miller

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).