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 871

District of Kaiapoi Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar Thomas F. Sir

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
48	4 October 1899	Kereopa Haramia Catherine Furhe Jouria	Kereopa Harawira Catherine Tuwhe Huria 💍 1899/4982	Bachelor Spinster	Labor	31 21	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	31 years 21 years	Registrar's Office, Kaiapoi	99/4850		4 October 1899	Registrar
49	20 October 1899	Thomas Henry Baylis Mary Ellen Toundini	Thomas Henry Baylis Mary Ellen Tonkin 💍 1899/4983	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	21 20	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	4 years 2 years	Mr. Toundini's house, Sandhills Kaiapoi	99/4851	Ellen Toundini, mother	20 October 1899	John Orchard, Wesleyan
50	25 October 1899	William Henry Allen Florence Stansfield	William Henry Allen Florence Stansfield 💍 1899/4985	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Knitter	24 21	Belfast Kaiapoi	12 years 21 years	Wesleyan Church, Kaiapoi	99/4852		25 October 1899	John Orchard, Wesleyan
51	1 November 1899	William Henry Huigh Edith Marrain Jeffrey	William Henry Haigh Edith Marian Jeffrey 💍 1899/5205	Bachelor Spinster	Finisher Weaver	24 25	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	18 years 25 years	Presbyterian Church, Kaiapoi	99/5346		1 November 1899	W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
52	20 November 1899	William Trall Myra Styles	William Hall Myra Styles 💍 1899/5206	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic	26 25	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	2 years 25 years	J. Hoskins house, H. Road Kaiapoi	99/5347		20 November 1899	W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
53	21 November 1899	Alfred Henry Cochlin Agnes Beaumont	Alfred Henry Collins Agnes Beaumont 💍 1899/4219	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 33	Kinwee Springston	4 months 25 years	Church of England, Kaiapoi	99/5201		21 November 1899	J. H. Mathias, Church of England
54	27 November 1899	Ernest Lange Elizabeth Mary Tavendale	Ernest Lange Elizabeth Mary Tavendale 💍 1899/5207	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	29 23	Coults Island Coults Island	2 months 6 years	C. Tavendale's house, Coults Island	99/5348		27 November 1899	W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
55	14 December 1899	Herbert Meadowcroft Emma Sims	Herbert Meadowcroft Emma Sims 💍 1899/4220	Widower Spinster	Master	45 31	Kaiapoi Kaiapoi	8 years 31 years	Church of England, Kaiapoi	99/5202		14 December 1899	J. H. Mathias, Church of England
56	19 December 1899	Fredk. Thearsby Emily Georgina Burgess		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	29 23	Christchurch Kaiapoi	8 weeks 23 years	Wesleyan Church, Kaiapoi	99/4853		19 December 1899	John Orchard, Wesleyan
57	20 December 1899	George Collins Jones Louisa McJany	George Collins Jowers Louisa McGarry 💍 1899/5208	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Weaver	35 23	Woolston Kaiapoi	4 months 20 years	J. McJany's house, Kaiapoi	99/5349		20 December 1899	W. J. Gow, Presbyterian
58	21 December 1899	Alfred Topp Ada Maria Porter	Alfred Topp Ada Maria Porter 💍 1899/5475	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	29 21	Sefton Woodend (Kaiapoi)	29 years 21 years	Wesleyan Church, Woodend	99/4855		21 December 1899	J. N. Siffers, Wesleyan

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).