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 825

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar William George Douglas

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
22	20 October 1899	Edwd Michael Quinn Margaret Frances Griffen	Edward Michael Quinn Margaret Francis Griffen 💍 1899/4942	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 23	Hokitika Stafford	3 days 23 years	Roman Catholic Church at Stafford	99/4709	20 October 1899	Revd T. F. O'Callahan
23	23 October 1899	James Davidson Elizabeth Mary Anderson	James Davidson Elizabeth Mary Anderson 💍 1899/4939 John Cameron Elizabeth Mary Anderson 💍 1899/1253	Bachelor Spinster	Pianomaker Domestic	33 22	Hokitika Hokitika	18 months 7 years	Residence of Mrs G. Anderson, Sewell Street, Hokitika	99/4706	23 October 1899	Revd Wm Douglas
24	1 November 1899	Andrew Stevenson Margaret Ann Fairbairn	Andrew Stevenson Margaret Ann Fairbairn 💍 1899/4940	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Domestic	37 27	Hokitika Hokitika	33 years 27 years	Residence of Mr D. Stevenson, Hokitika	99/4707	1 November 1899	Revd Wm Douglas
25	25 November 1899	Alfred Joshua Lindsay Caroline Amelia Harris	Alfred Joshua Lindsay Caroline Amelia Harris 💍 1899/4958	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Domestic	24 23	Hokitika Hokitika	2 years 3 months	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	99/4704	25 November 1899	Registrar Hokitika
26	28 November 1899	Ruffino Zaninello Mary Owens	Ruffino Taminelli Mary Owens 💍 1899/4943	Widower Widow	Sawmiller Laundress	62 36	Kanieri Hokitika	33 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	99/4710	28 November 1899	Very Revd P. A. Martin
27	12 December 1899	Daniel Creaney Elizabeth Adelaide Marr	Daniel Greaney Elizabeth Adelaide Marr 💍 1899/4938	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Domestic	28 27	Hokitika Hokitika	1 year 25 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	99/4705	12 December 1899	Registrar Hokitika
28	18 December 1899	John August Schröder Clarisse Ann Willoughby	John August Schroder Clarisse Ann Willoughby 💍 1899/4941	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	35 22	Kanieri Forks Woodstock	24 years 22 years	Residence of Mrs Sears, Woodstock	99/4708	18 December 1899	Revd Wm Douglas
29	21 December 1899	Thos Irving Blanchard Susan Hancock	Thomas Loring Blanchard Susan Hancock 💍 1899/4944	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Domestic	57 54	Hokitika Hokitika	11 years 28 years	Residence of Thos I. Blanchard, Hokitika	99/4711	21 December 1899	Revd H. E. Hawkins
30	28 December 1899	James Howat Flora McPhee	James Howat Flora McPhee 💍 1900/768	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	31 22	Woodstock Woodstock	3 years 22 years	Residence of Danl McPhee, Woodstock	00/748	28 December 1899	Revd Wm Douglas

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).