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 843

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar J W Northcroft

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
448	21 October 1899	Archibald Clement Ford Annie Selina Webb	Archibald Clement Ford Annie Selina Webb 💍 1899/4006	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Dressmaker	39 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 3 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Durham St, Sydenham Ch Ch	99/4752		21 October 1899	Rev W Baumber, Wesleyan
449	23 October 1899	William James Cunningham Rosina Meadows	William James Cunningham Rosina Meadows 💍 1899/5358	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Dressmaker	27 25	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 24 years	Pro Cathedral, Barbadoes St, Ch Ch	99/5335		23 October 1899	Rev R. Richards, Roman Catholic
450	24 October 1899	Charles Alfred Wright Hannah Elizabeth Charles	Charles Alfred Wright Hannah Elizabeth Charles 💍 1899/5360	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic	20 25	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 3 years	Methodist Church, Cambridge Terrace, Ch Ch	99/5318	Samuel Wright, Father	24 October 1899	Rev C. H. Ward, Methodist
451	25 October 1899	Charles Fisher Emma Joanna Berry	Charles Fisher Emma Joeanna Berry 💍 1899/4096	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Tailoress	37 22	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 22 years	Wesleyan Church, St. Albans	99/4812		25 October 1899	Rev W Lee, Wesleyan
452	26 October 1899	Roderick McDonald Maggie Munro	Roderick McDonald Maggie Munro 💍 1899/5349	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Dressmaker	37 34	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 34 Years	House of Mr R. Munro, South Belt, Sydenham	99/5327		26 October 1899	Rev Dr Elmslie, Presbyterian
453	26 October 1899	William Parker Templeton Mary Ellen Templeton	William Parker Mary Ellen Templeton 💍 1899/4229	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 20 years	St. Andrews Church, Tuam St, Ch Ch	99/5310	William Templeton, Father	26 October 1899	Rev C. M. L. Wright, Presbyterian
454	28 October 1899	William Wilks Newnham Mary Gerther	William Wilks Newnham Mary Gerken 💍 1899/4027	Bachelor Widow	Grocer	33 41	Christchurch Christchurch	29 years 33 years	Durham St Wesleyan Church, Ch Ch	99/4751		28 October 1899	Rev W Baumber, Wesleyan
455	28 October 1899	Sidney Smith Ethel May Ward	Sidney Smith Ethel May Ward 💍 1899/5407	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Lincoln Riccarton	26 years 19 years	St. Stephens Church, Lincoln	99/5312	George Ward, Father	28 October 1899	Ven Arch Thorpe, Anglican

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).