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 851

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar J W Patterson

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
500	25 November 1899	Hubert David Bettger Susan Frances Johnston	Hubert David Bettger Susan Francis Johnston 💍 1899/4050	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	26 26	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 5 years	St Michaels Church	99/4787	25 November 1899	Rev L. FitzGerald Anglican
501	25 November 1899	John Aubrey Dixon Frances Minnie Reeves	John Aubrey Dixon Frances Minnie Reeves 💍 1899/5357	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	24 21	Woolston Heathcote	24 years 21 years	St Johns Church Woolston	99/5314	25 November 1899	Rev C. H. Gosset Anglican
502	27 November 1899	John Thompson Bessie Jane Smith	John Thompson Bessie Jane Smith 💍 1899/4081	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic	75 44	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 42 years	Salvation Army Headquarters Lichfield St. Christchurch	99/4821	27 November 1899	H. Gallant Major Sal. Army Officer
503	27 November 1899	William Charles Evans Ellen Amelia Triggs	William Charles Evans Ellen Amelia Tripp 💍 1899/5226	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Teacher	33 42	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 35 years	St Johns Church Latimer Sqre Christchurch	99/5343	27 November 1899	Rev H. M. Watson Church of England
504	27 November 1899	Philip Wisher Thomson Theresa Schuler	Philip Wisker Theresa Schuoler 💍 1899/4016	Widower Widow	Bootmaker	53 49	Christchurch Christchurch	27 years 18 years	Registrars Office Christchurch	99/4744	27 November 1899	Registrar Marriages J W Patterson
505	27 November 1899	Alexander Bickerton Rosamand Jane Kennedy	Alexander Augustus Bickerton Rosamund Fanny Kennedy 💍 1899/5352	Bachelor Spinster	Analyst & Professor Teacher	30 34	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 10 years	House of Professor Bickerton New Brighton Road	99/5330	27 November 1899	Rev G. Henslie Presbyterian
506	27 November 1899	David Joseph Leach Annie Cecilia Costigan		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	25 26	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 12 years	Registrars Office Christchurch	99/4743	27 November 1899	Registrar Marriages J W Patterson

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).