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 943

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
500	27 December 1899	John Donaldson Mary Ann Sheffield	John Donaldson Mary Ann Sheffield 💍 1899/4121	Widower Widow	Miner	47 years 44 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 24 years	In St. Matthews Church	99/5010		27 December 1899	Revd W. Lewrron Siggers, Church of England Minister
501	28 December 1899	William Vivian Sarah Johnson	William Vivian Sarah Johnson 💍 1899/5051 Carl Julius Poulson Sarah Johnson 💍 1899/76 William James Brewin Mary Johnson 💍 1899/4438	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	23 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	23 years 11 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	99/1498		28 December 1899	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
502	28 December 1899	Henry Cox Sarah McLachlan	Henry Cox Margaret Jane Sarah McLachlan 💍 1900/1081	Divorcee Spinster	Draper	58 years 29 years	North East Valley Michiwaka	10 years 6 months	In the house of Dugald McLachlan, Michiwaka, Port Chalmers	00/1094		28 December 1899	Revd E. Taylor, Congregational Minister
503	28 December 1899	James Samuel Joyce Annie Caroline Schofield	James Samuel Joyce Annie Caroline Schofield 💍 1900/2501	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 years 24 years	Mornington Mornington	18 years 5 years	In the house of James Schofield	00/1099		28 December 1899	Revd W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
504	29 December 1899	John Budge Henrietta Elizabeth Goodall	John Budge Ramsey Henrietta Elizabeth Goodall 💍 1899/4170	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 years 21 years	Mornington Mornington	3 days 3 days	In the house of Daniel William Williamson	99/5006		29 December 1899	Revd W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
505	29 December 1899	James Grainger Isabella Stewart	James Grainger Isabella Stewart 💍 1900/2495	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 years 20 years	Anderson's Bay Sandymount	20 years 20 years	In the house of Robert Stewart	00/1108	Robert Stewart, father of minor	29 December 1899	Revd A. Greig, Presbyterian Minister
506	29 December 1899	Charles Turner Junr. Amelia Agnes Cantwell	Charles Turner Junr Amelia Agnes Cantwell 💍 1900/2478	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 14 days	In the house of Mrs. Mary Lennon, Maitland Street	00/1068		29 December 1899	Revd R. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).