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 675

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1899 Registrar S. Jago

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
63	23 October 1899	Francis Brimmer Alice Mills	Francis Brimmer Alice Mills 💍 1899/4653	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housekeeper	32 38	Gisborne Gisborne	14 years 4 days 7 years 4 days	Office of the Registrar, Napier	99/4340	23 October 1899	S. Jago, Registrar of Marriages
64	23 October 1899	George Charles Fletcher Elizabeth Grace Faulknor	George Charles Fletcher Grace Faulkner 💍 1899/4676	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	25 26	Napier Napier	5 years 24 years	St. Augustine's Church, Napier	99/4350	23 October 1899	Dean Hovell, Church of England
65	27 October 1899	Andrew Manholland Shearer Annie Falvey	Andrew Manholland Shearer Annie Falvey 💍 1899/5314	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	26 21	Omaranui Napier	9 months 10 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	99/5468	27 October 1899	Rev. Father Grogan, Roman Catholic
66	1 November 1899	Wallace Simmonds Elizabeth Ann Coker	Wallace Simmonds Elizabeth Ann Coker 💍 1899/4693	Bachelor Spinster	Moulder	26 21	Napier Napier	24 years 21 years	Residence of Mr. Coker, Goldsmith, Napier	99/4362	1 November 1899	Rev. G. Dean, Church of England
67	2 November 1899	James Edward Blackburn Margaret McCarthy	James Edward Blackburn Margaret McCarthy 💍 1899/107	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 27	Napier Napier	1 year 27 years	Roman Catholic Church, Napier	99/5469	2 November 1899	Dean Grogan, Roman Catholic
68	4 November 1899	Isaac Honore Catherine Jane Fraser	Isaac Honore Catherine Jane Exeter 💍 1899/4682	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	39 24	Napier Napier	6 years 24 years	Congregational Church, Napier	99/4361	4 November 1899	Rev. H. W. Miller, Congregationalist
69	14 November 1899	James Arthur Fryer Lilian Maude Robinson	James Atkinson Fryer Lillian Maude Robinson 💍 1899/4655	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	55 23	Napier Napier	23 years 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	99/4341	14 November 1899	S. Jago, Registrar of Marriages

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).