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 777

District of Wellington Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar Frederick William Mansfield

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
500	11 December 1899	William Herbert Jeffries Elizabeth Mary Stevens	William Herbert Jeffries Mary Elizabeth Stevens 💍 1899/4798	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	27 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 22 years	Rev. J. K. Elliots Manse, Pirie St., Wellington	99/4537		11 December 1899	Rev. J. K. Elliots
501	11 December 1899	Alexander Melvin Burns Mary Elizabeth Brown	Alexander Melvin Burns Mary Elizabeth Brown 💍 1899/4837	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	29 24	Wellington Wellington	5 months 10 years	Residence of Mr. John Brown, "Polmont", Hawker Street, Wellington	99/4552		11 December 1899	Rev. Jas. Paterson
502	11 December 1899	Charles Emanuel Guthrie Ellen Claphams	Charles Emanuel Guthrie Ellen Clapham 💍 1899/4817	Bachelor Spinster	Driver Dressmaker	27 24	Wellington Wellington	24 years 24 years	St. Johns Manse, Wellington	99/4548		11 December 1899	Rev. Jas. Paterson
503	11 December 1899	Joe Quick Caroline Heidenstrom	Joe Quick Caroline Heidenstrom 💍 1899/4809	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	49 20	Wellington Wellington	30 years 20 years	In the Residence of Mr. Joe Quick, 18 Haining St., Wellington	99/4547	Carl Peter Heidenstrom, father	12 December 1899	Rev. Jas. Paterson
504	11 December 1899	Walter Charles Prier Jane Benge	Walter Charles Prier Jane Benge 💍 1899/3947	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Akatarawa Mungaroa	4 years 19 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	99/4515	David Benge, father	20 December 1899	Registrar
505	11 December 1899	Buckley Joyce Annie Billman	Buckley Joyce Annie Billman 💍 1899/4862	Bachelor Spinster	Linotype Operator	26 26	Wellington Wellington	5 years 26 years	Residence of Mr. F. Billman, 156 Cuba St., Wellington	99/4577		11 December 1899	Rev. W. C. Oliver
506	12 December 1899	Benjamin Watson Buttle Elizabeth Mary Annabella Leslie	Benjamin Watson Buttle Elizabeth Mary Annabella Leslie 💍 1899/5191	Widower Spinster	Commercial Traveller	42 27	Wellington Wellington	10 years 11 years	Residence of Mr. Geo. Leslie, "Tirohanga", Ngaio, Wesley Road, Wellington	99/5289		12 December 1899	Rev. C. S. Ogg

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).