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 763

District of WELLINGTON Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar W. W. Munn, Registrar

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
406	4 October 1899	Halowell David Drummond Cecilia Amelia Quaintance	Halswell David Drummond Cecilia Amelia Quaintance 💍 1899/5402	Bachelor Spinster	Farmhand	26 20	Wainuiomata Wainuiomata	6 years 13 years	Wesleyan Church, Nelson Street, Petone	99/5293	Joseph Quaintance (Father)	11 October 1899	Rev. Joseph H. Gray
407	4 October 1899	Alexander James Braid Ellen Jane Archer	Alexander James Braid Ellen Jane Archer 💍 1899/4824	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	23 20	Wellington Wellington	20 years 20 years	Residence of Henry Archer, Washington Street, Brooklyn	99/4563	Henry Archer (Father)	4 October 1899	Rev. Chas. Dallaston
408	5 October 1899	Edwin Hooking Annie Hobson	Edwin Hosking Annie Hobson 💍 1899/4850	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	43 34	Wellington Wellington	4 days 4 days	St. Thomas Church, Wellington	99/4589		5 October 1899	Rev. C. Fitzgerald
409	5 October 1899	Peter Heoperh Feron Minnie Louisa Miller	Peter Hespeth Feron Minnie Louisa Miller 💍 1899/4878	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Alicetown, Lower Hutt Lower Hutt	18 months 8 months	Church of England, Petone	99/4599	Ethel Elizabeth Clemens (Mother)	5 October 1899	Rev. J. Delacourt Russell
410	7 October 1899	Luke Francis Tant Nathans Grace Ellen Taylor	Luke Francis Vant Nattrass Grace Ellen Taylor 💍 1899/5189	Bachelor Spinster	Cycle Expert	20 19	Lower Hutt Petone	4 years 8 years	Residence of David Taylor, Richmond Street, Petone	99/5287	Luke Nathans (Father), David Taylor (Father)	7 October 1899	Rev. Alex Thomson
411	7 October 1899	Walter Samuel Bills Florence Emily Misters	Walter Samuel Betts Florence Emily Weston 💍 1899/4867	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	25 23	Wellington Wellington	18 months 14 days	St. Augustine Church, Petone	99/4598		7 October 1899	Rev. D. J. Fortune
412	9 October 1899	Alfred Edmonds Louisa Emily Apple	Alfred Edwards Louisa Emily Gyde 💍 1899/4832	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 26	Wellington Wellington	5 days 3 months	Residence of Mr. W. J. Hyde, 1 Hospital Road, Wellington	99/4570		9 October 1899	Rev. W. C. Oliver

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).