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 936

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar W J Call

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
464	18 December 1899	George Henry Strong Mary Agnes Canning	George Henry Strong Mary Agnes Canning 💍 1900/1018	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	31 27	North East Valley Mornington	14 years 5 years	In the house of Mary Agnes Canning, Mornington	1900/1058	18 December 1899	Revd James Gibb, Presbyterian Minister
465	18 December 1899	John Haynes Mary Jane McLedowney	John Haynes Mary Jane McLedowney 💍 1899/4155	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 20	South Dunedin South Dunedin	2 years 10 years	In St Patrick's Church, South Dunedin	99/4984	18 December 1899	Revd J Coffey, Roman Catholic Priest
466	18 December 1899	William Samuel King Catherine Winifred Cartwell	William Samuel King Catherine Winifred Cantrell 💍 1899/4173	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	31 29	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 29 years	In St Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	99/4987	18 December 1899	Revd P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
467	18 December 1899	James Riley Eliza Wilkinson	James Riley Eliza Wilkinson 💍 1899/4115	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Dealer	32 28	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 17 years	In the house of Alfred Wilkinson, Eden Street, Dunedin	99/5026	18 December 1899	Revd P. Hoodsum, Methodist Minister
468	18 December 1899	James Stevens Lily Jane Burt		Bachelor Spinster	Maltster	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	22 years 2 years	In Knox Church, Dunedin		18 December 1899	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
469	18 December 1899	John McLennan Jean McEldowney	John McLennan Junr Jean McEldowney 💍 1899/5085	Widower Widow	Storeman	41 32	Kensington Kensington	3 years 6 months	In the house of John McLennan, Maori Hill	99/4960	18 December 1899	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
470	19 December 1899	Arthur John Hare Grace Eliza Applegate	Arthur John Hare Grace Eliza Applegate 💍 1899/4165	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 23	Caversham Caversham	3 days 23 years	In St Peters Church, Caversham	99/5002	19 December 1899	Revd A. C. Hampton, Church of England Minister
471	19 December 1899	John McKay Johanna Kerr	John McKay Johanna Kerr 💍 1899/4116	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 29	Dunedin Sandymount	6 months 8 years	In the house of James Kerr, Sandymount	99/5027	19 December 1899	Revd A. Greig, 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).