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 841

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar J. Markerson

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
433	13 October 1899	John McCallum Watson Christina Whitelaw	John McCallum Watson Christina Whitelaw 💍 1899/5348	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	29 26	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 26 years	House of Mr. J. Whitelaw, Brougham St, Sydenham	99/5324	13 October 1899	Rev. F. Christie, Presbyterian
434	13 October 1899	Edwin Egbert Patten Martha Mary Clung	Edwin Egbert Patten Martha McClurg 💍 1899/5347	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 27	Christchurch Christchurch	7 years 14 years	St. Paul's Church, Cashel St, Christchurch	99/5325	13 October 1899	Rev. F. Christie, Presbyterian
435	14 October 1899	Francis John Marquand Edith Mary Guise	Francis John Marquand Edith Mary Guise 💍 1899/4048	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	41 30	Christchurch Christchurch	6 months 30 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	99/4785	14 October 1899	Rev. C. A. Fraser, Anglican
436	14 October 1899	Francis Rowell Drew Amy Elizabeth Drew	Francis Rowell Amy Elizabeth Drew 💍 1899/5408	Bachelor Spinster	Lineman	31 25	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 6 years	Anglican Church, Summer	99/5316	14 October 1899	Rev. E. H. Gosset, Anglican
437	14 October 1899	William Henry McQuarters Elizabeth Jane Bradford	William Henry McQuarter Elizabeth Jane Bradford 💍 1899/5281	Widower Spinster	Mariner	37 27	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year	Wesleyan Parsonage, Belfast	99/5428	14 October 1899	Rev. E. Porter, Wesleyan
438	14 October 1899	James Robert Duff Jane Vivian	James Robert Luff Jane Vivian 💍 1899/4076	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Tailoress	23 24	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 14 years	House of Mr. J. Vivian, Livingstone St, Linwood	99/4816	14 October 1899	Rev. F. J. Batters, Congregational
439	16 October 1899	Daniel Strimmetz Florence May Catherine Evans	Daniel Steinmetz Florence Mary Catherine Evans 💍 1899/5356	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	37 25	Christchurch Christchurch	17 years 6 years	Pro. Cathedral, Barbados St, Christchurch	99/5334	16 October 1899	Very Rev. de L. des Chesnais, Roman Catholic

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).