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 1003

District of Riverton Quarter ending 30 December 1899 Registrar Alexander G. Ashby

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
566	24 November 1899	James McIntosh Fannie Dimmock	James McIntosh Fannie Dimmock 💍 1899/5412	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	30 21	Orepuki Orepuki	4 months 2 months	At the Office of the Registrar, Riverton	99/5135		24 November 1899	Alexander G. Ashby (Registrar)
567	7 December 1899	John Lindsay Margaret Hopcroft	John Lindsay Margaret Sloan Hopcroft 💍 1899/5151	Widower Widow	Block cutter Domestic Duties	48 36	Riverton Riverton	3 days 15 years	At the House of Margaret Sloan, Hopcroft, Riverton	99/5138		7 December 1899	Rev. Robt McCully (Presbyterian Minister)
568	9 December 1899	Oswald Oscar Reichel Susan Brownridge	Oswald Oscar Reichel Susan Brownridge 💍 1899/4105	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper Domestic Duties	29 27	Orepuki Fairfax	28 years 14 years	At the Registry Office, Invercargill	99/5064		9 December 1899	Registrar of Marriages, Invercargill
569	14 December 1899	Leonard Wright Petchell Augusta Helen Williams	Leonard Wright Petchell Augusta Helen Williams 💍 1899/5261	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Lady Matron of Hospital	43 31	Riverton Riverton	20 years 3 years	At the Church of England, Riverton	99/5404		14 December 1899	Rev. D. C. Bates (Church of England)
570	16 December 1899	James William Robson Bennett Elizabeth Jane Walker	James William Robson Bennett Elizabeth Jane Walker 💍 1899/5262	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	23 19	Orepuki Riverton	10 years 5 years	At the House of Mr William Walker, Riverton	99/5405	William Walker, Father of Bride	16 December 1899	Rev D. C. Bates (Church of England)
571	16 December 1899	James Muir Louisa Agnes Reid	James Muir Louisa Agnes Reid 💍 1899/5294	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	36 years 24 years	Orepuki Orepuki	12 months 16 years	In the House of Mrs Reid, Orepuki	99/5440		16 December 1899	Rev. M. Walsh (Roman Catholic)
572	21 December 1899	Henry Roberts Sarah McDonald	Henry Roberts Sarah McDonald 💍 1899/5153	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Duties	21 years 20 years	Wakapatu Wakapatu	3 years 20 years	In the Presbyterian Church, Riverton	99/5139		21 December 1899	Rev Robt McCully (Presbyterian)
573	30 December 1899	William James Lennon Amy Alice Wohlmann	William James Lennon Amy Alice Wohlmann 💍 1900/2612	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	25 years 25 years	Orepuki Otautau	3 days 15 years	In the House of Mr George Wohlmann, Otautau	1900/1201		30 December 1899	Rev E. Y. Roby (Presbyterian)

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).