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 674

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar C J Jago

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
57	2 October 1899	Mark Wakelin Edith Ellen Corbin	Mark Wakelin Edith Ellen Corbin 💍 1899/4128	Bachelor Spinster	Orchardist	25 22	Taradale Taradale	3 Years 13 Years	English Church Taradale	99/5189		2 October 1899	Rev AP Clarke, Church of England
58	3 October 1899	Frank Charles Gannaway Ellen Elizabeth Mitchell	Frank Charles Gannaway Ellen Elizabeth Mitchell 💍 1899/4673	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	42 23	Western Spit Western Spit	11 yrs 2 1/2 Yrs	Res: of H W J Miller, Napier	99/4360		3 October 1899	Rev H W J Miller, Congregationalist
59	12 October 1899	Philip Parsons Jane Benson	Philip Parsons Jane Benson 💍 1899/4672	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	27 19	Taradale Napier	6 mths 9 yrs	Residence of Brides father, Barrack Hill, Napier	99/4350	John Benson, Father of Jane Benson	12 October 1899	Rev C. Connor, Presbyterian
60	17 October 1899	Lars Andersen Ann Mary Lilian Philpott	Lars Andersen Ann Mary Lilian Philpott 💍 1899/4679	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Dressmaker	28 32	Spit Spit	1 year 6 mths	Residence of Rev W G Parsonson, Napier	99/4353		17 October 1899	Rev W G Parsonson, Wesleyan
61	18 October 1899	Thomas Henry Carner Jane Elizabeth McEwan	Thomas Henry Carver Jane Elizabeth McEwan 💍 1899/4680	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Domestic	27 20	Napier Napier	20 yrs 20 yrs	Residence of Brides Father, Chaucer Rd	99/4354	James McEwan, Father	18 October 1899	Rev W G Parsonson, Wesleyan
62	19 October 1899	Frank Churchill Perry Maud Airina Taikataiz Donnelly	Frank Churchill Perry Maud Airein Taikitai Donnelly 💍 1899/4129	Bachelor Spinster		28 21	Omahu Omahu	3 mths 21 years	Native Church, Omahu	99/5190		19 October 1899	Archdeacon Saml Williams, Church of England

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).