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 995

District of Palmerston Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar F.W. Pattle

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
14	24 October 1899	Donald Murray Elizabeth Griffin	Donald Murray Elizabeth Griffin 💍 1899/5403	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 31	Dunback Macraes Flat	30 years 30 years	Residence of F.W. Pattle, Macraes Flat	99/5119		26 October 1899	Rev. T. Panton Brown, Presbyterian
15	28 October 1899	Robert Matheson Robertson Catherine Richards	Robert Matheson Robertson Catherine McLeod 💍 1899/4156	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	30 27	Palmerston Dunedin	8 years in the house of his parents 5 days per Gibb Dunedin	Dunedin	99/4993		28 October 1899	Rev. J. H. Waddell, Presbyterian
16	6 November 1899	Thomas Ewing Brown Mary Elizabeth McLeod	Thomas Ewing Brown Mary Elizabeth McLeod 💍 1899/5157	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29	Palmerston Palmerston	6 years Residence of Donald 20 months McLeod Palmerston	Palmerston	99/5121		6 November 1899	Rev. James Clarke, Presbyterian
17	8 November 1899	John Phelan Catherine O'Neill	John Phelan Catherine O'Neill 💍 1899/5284 John Sullivan Catherine O'Neill 💍 1899/4945	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Macraes Flat Palmerston	21 years 22 years	Roman Catholic Church, Palmerston	99/5431		8 November 1899	Rev. James Lynch, Roman Catholic
18	14 November 1899	Thomas William Wise Margaret Anderson	Thomas William Wise Margaret Anderson 💍 1899/5158 John Greaves Margaret Anderson 💍 1899/4548	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	29 27	Palmerston Palmerston	3 days Residence of John 2 months Anderson Goodwood	Palmerston	99/5122		14 November 1899	Rev. James Clarke, Presbyterian
19	16 December 1899	William John Ingram Johnston Helena Gordon	William John Ingram Johnston Dolena Gordon 💍 1899/5159	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	34 31	Palmerston Palmerston	12 years Residence of Donald Gordon Palmerston	Palmerston	99/5123		19 December 1899	Rev. James Clarke, Presbyterian
20	22 December 1899	Arthur Woodhouse Louisa Harris	Arthur Woodhouse Lois Stephenson Harris 💍 1899/5160	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 20	Shag Point Shag Point	15 months 15 months	Presbyterian Church, Palmerston	99/5124	W. Harris, Father	22 December 1899	Rev. James Clarke, Presbyterian
21	31 December 1899	William Joseph Burgess Edith Annie Forrest	William Joseph Burgess Edith Annie Everest 💍 1899/5156	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	20 20	Shag Point Shag Point	20 years 20 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Palmerston	99/5120		31 December 1899	F.W. Pattle, Registrar of Marriages, Palmerston

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).