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 416

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar W. J. Hall

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
330	23 August 1899	Edward Telfer Whalan Eliza Millicent Pearson	Edward Telfer Whalan Eliza Millicent Pearson 💍 1899/3647	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 years 21 years	Caversham Caversham	1 week 1 week	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	99/3664		23 August 1899	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
331	26 August 1899	George Edward Barrett Horder Winifred Beatrice Child	George Edward Barrett Horder Winifred Beatrice Child 💍 1899/4296	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	32 years 27 years	Dunedin Maori Hill	32 years 7 years	In St. Johns Church, Roslyn	99/3721		26 August 1899	Revd. Frank Mayne, Church of England Minister
332	26 August 1899	William Campbell Kerr Ellen Price White Hill	William Campbell Kerr Ellen Price White Hill 💍 1899/4478	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	22 years 20 years	South Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 20 years	In the house of Revd. Isaac Jolly, South Dunedin	99/3692	Mary Ann Jolly, mother of minor	26 August 1899	Revd. Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
333	28 August 1899	William Charles Rodgers Bessie Higgs	William Charles Rodgers Bessie Higgs 💍 1899/3541	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 years 19 years	Dunedin Mornington	23 years 19 years	In the house of Samuel Nicholas Higgs, Mornington	99/3705	Samuel Nicholas Higgs, father of minor	28 August 1899	Revd. J. Lewis, Wesleyan Minister
334	28 August 1899	Percy Smith Isabella Carrodus	Percy Smith Isabella Carrodus 💍 1899/3542	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	29 years 18 years	South Dunedin Brockville	20 years 18 years	In St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	99/3688	Jemima Carrodus, mother of minor	28 August 1899	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
335	28 August 1899	William John Le Fanu Florence Elizabeth Rice	William John Le Fanu Florence Elizabeth Rice 💍 1899/3635	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Maori Hill	1 year 3 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	99/3678		28 August 1899	Revd. F. Newton, Presbyterian Minister
336	30 August 1899	James O'Reilly Mary Brennan	James OReilly Mary Brennan 💍 1899/3549	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	40 years 30 years	Dunedin North East Valley	3 days 30 years	In St. Josephs Cathedral, Dunedin	99/3689		30 August 1899	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest

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).