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 646

District of Eltham Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar James William Middleton

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
7	27 October 1899	Joseph Edward Bloomfield Violet Emmeline Quarrell	Joseph Edward Bloomfield Violet Emmeline Quarrell 💍 1899/4596	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Matapu Ngaira	3 months 3 years	at the house of brides parents Ngaira	99/4256		27 October 1899	Rev. B. Dudley
8	12 November 1899	Arthur George Whiting Bertha May Willett	Arthur George Whiting Bertha May Willetts 💍 1899/4597	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 19	Eltham Eltham	10 years 9 months	at house of E. J. Whiting Eltham	99/4257	James Willett, father	14 November 1899	Rev. B. Dudley
9	27 November 1899	Walter Edward Taylor Mary Holdway	Walter Edward Tayler Mary Holdway 💍 1899/4294	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 20	Hawleyville Eltham	8 years 15 years	Church of England Eltham	99/5496	Walter Holdway, father	27 November 1899	Rev. E. J. McConnell
10	8 December 1899	Robert Simpson Evelyn Elizabeth Northcott	Robert Simpson Evelyn Elizabeth Northcott 💍 1899/4617	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Eltham Eltham	3 days 14 days	Registrar's office Eltham	99/4254		8 December 1899	Registrar
11	11 December 1899	Charles Henry Harrison Emily Mills	Charles Henry Harrison Emily Mills 💍 1899/4598	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 32	Eltham Eltham	16 years 16 years	at house of brides father Eltham	99/4258		11 December 1899	Rev. B. Dudley
12	25 December 1899	Alexander Richard Morgan Eleanor Louisa Robinson	Alexander Richard Morgan Eleanor Louisa Robinson 💍 1899/4599	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 23	Eltham Eltham	3 days 14 years	Primitive Methodist Church Eltham	99/4259		25 December 1899	Rev. B. Dudley
13	23 December 1899	John O'Neill Lucy Leonardo	John O'Neill Lucy Leonardo 💍 1899/4291	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 23	Eltham Eltham	3 months 2 months	Roman Catholic Church Eltham	99/5493		23 December 1899	Very Rev. Father Power
14	27 December 1899	John George Henry Blane Eliza Jane Gibson	John George Henry Blane Eliza Jane Gibson 💍 1899/4595	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 17	Eltham Eltham	6 years 5 years	Registrar's office Eltham	99/4255	John Gibson, father	27 December 1899	Registrar

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).