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 815

District of Reefton Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar Henry Lucas

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
18	1 November 1899	Robert Cairns Elizabeth Heron	Robert Cairns Elizabeth Heron 💍 1899/4919	Widower Spinster	Miner	61 59	Reefton Reefton	20 years 7 days	At St Stephens Parsonage Reefton	99/4682		1 November 1899	Rev. John R. Dart
19	6 November 1899	Arthur Henry Bernard Dennis Eleanor Elizabeth Clarke	Arthur Henry Bernard Dennis Eleanor Elizabeth Clarke 💍 1899/4920	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 20	Globe Mine Reefton	9 months 10 years	At St Stephens Church Reefton	99/4683	Sarah Henrick Clarke (Mother)	6 November 1899	Rev. A. W. C. Stace
20	8 November 1899	Percy Robert Horne Marion Ellen Young	Percy Robert Horne Marion Ellen Young 💍 1899/4921	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 20	Progress Junction Reefton	10 months 10 years	At the residence of the father of the bride James Young - Buller Road Reefton	99/4684	James Young Father	8 November 1899	Rev. A. W. C. Stace
21	13 November 1899	Patrick O'Leary Rose FitzGerald	Patrick O'Leary Rose Fitzgerald 💍 1899/5417	Bachelor Widow	Miner Storekeeper	46 40	Capleston Capleston	9 years 13 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel Reefton	99/4685		13 November 1899	Rev. John L. Rolland
22	21 December 1899	Thomas Richardson Watson Claudia Sophia Green	Thomas Richardson Watson Sophia Claudia Green 💍 1899/4233	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 22	Crushington Blacks Point	24 years 12 years	At the residence of Richard Green, Teacher Blacks Point	99/5300		21 December 1899	Rev. William Gregg
23	29 December 1899	Francis Moore Elizabeth Grace Williamson	Francis Moore Elizabeth Grace Williamson 💍 1899/5489	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 21	Reefton Reefton	2 years 21 years	At the Roman Catholic Chapel Reefton	99/4686		29 December 1899	Rev. J B Rolland

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).