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 927

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar William Joseph Hall

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
400	23 October 1899	William London Mary Sherwood	William Condon Mary Sherwood 💍 1899/4114	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 23	Dunedin Caversham	4 days 4 days	In the house of Samuel Sherwood	99/5025		23 October 1899	Revd D. Cossum, Methodist Minister
401	24 October 1899	James Albert Bridgeman Margaret Elizabeth Taylor	James Albert Gridgeman Margaret Elizabeth Taylor 💍 1899/5251	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	25 20	Dunedin St Kilda	3 days 20 years	In St Paul's Cathedral	99/5368	David Taylor, father of minor	24 October 1899	Revd G. Robinson, Church of England Minister
402	24 October 1899	Charles Henry West Laura West	Charles Henry West Laura West 💍 1899/4171	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	27 35	Dunedin Dunedin	23 years 1 week	In St Matthews Church	99/5007		24 October 1899	Revd W. Curzon-Siggers, Church of England Minister
403	25 October 1899	Thomas Williams Margaret Bruce Leitch	Thomas Williams Margaret Bruce Leitch 💍 1899/5237	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St Andrews Church	99/5378		25 October 1899	Revd D. Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
404	28 October 1899	William Harvey Ellen Jane Gilmour	William Harvey Ellen Jane Gilmour 💍 1899/5063	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 26	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 26 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	99/4936		28 October 1899	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
405	28 October 1899	Frederick Morris Oldham Mabel Kempthorne	Frederick Morris Oldham Mabel Kempthorne 💍 1899/5229	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 27	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 27 years	In St Paul's Cathedral	99/5370		28 October 1899	Right Revd Dr Neville, Church of England Bishop
406	30 October 1899	Robert Chave McCracken Mary Roberta McLaren	Robert Phair McCracken Mary Roberta McLaren 💍 1899/4157	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Station Master	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 25 years	In the house of James McLaren, York Place	99/4994		30 October 1899	Revd James Gibb, Presbyterian Minister

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).