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 754

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar Jno. Bale

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
89	4 October 1899	David Cammock Annie Jones	David Cammock Annie Jones 💍 1899/4777	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	34 38	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	99/4467		4 October 1899	Registrar
90	4 October 1899	John Law Robinson Janet Risk	John Law Robinson Janet Risk 💍 1899/4769	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 24	Raetihi Raetihi	4 years 7 months	In the residence of Mr. James Risk	99/4482		4 October 1899	G. W. Cobb, Wesleyan
91	13 October 1899	Alfred Allan Mary Reidy (generally known as Mary Maidhawks)	Alfred Allan Mary Windybanks 💍 1899/4759	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	22 21	Whanganui Campbell St, Whanganui	5 days 2 years	In the residence of Mr. George Maidhawks	99/4473		13 October 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
92	17 October 1899	George Bamford Mary Ann Thomas	George Bainton Mary Ann Thomas 💍 1899/4758	Widower Widow	Bricklayer	53 47	Whanganui Row, Whanganui	10 months 22 years	In the residence of Mr. H. Thomas, Bolton	99/4472		17 October 1899	G. Bond, Wesleyan
93	25 October 1899	Samuel Arthur Bremer Hilda Alice Hooker	Samuel Arthur Cremer Hilda Alice Hooker 💍 1899/4770	Bachelor Spinster	Fancy Goods Dealer	20 21	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 4 days	Baptist Church, Whanganui	99/4483		25 October 1899	H. Peters, Baptist
94	25 October 1899	Matthew Siddle Bertha May Catherine McAlinden	Matthew Siddle Bertha May Catherine McAlinden 💍 1899/4778	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	21 20	Whanganui Whanganui	10 years 13 years	In the residence of Mr. Peter McAlinden		Mr. Peter McAlinden, Father	25 October 1899	Dean Kirk, Roman Catholic
95	26 October 1899	Matthew Siddle Bertha May Catherine McAlinden	Matthew Siddle Bertha May Catherine McAlinden 💍 1899/4778	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	21 20	Whanganui Whanganui	10 years 13 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	99/4468	Mr. Peter McAlinden, Father	26 October 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).