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 410

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
256	21 July 1899	James Albert Storer Charlotte Fox	James Albert Storer Charlotte Fox 💍 1899/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 19	Kensington Leaversham	2 months 19 years	In St. Matthew's Church, Dunedin	99/3698	Hugh Fox, father of minor	21 July 1899	Rev. W. Laurzon Leggers, Church of England Minister
257	24 July 1899	James Arthur Junr. Isabella Don	James Arthur Isabella Don 💍 1899/4314	Bachelor Spinster	Master Tailor	38 24	Dunedin Mornington	23 years 18 years	In the house of John Don, Mornington	99/3717		24 July 1899	Rev. L. Waddell, Presbyterian Minister
288	24 July 1899	Alfred Stanley Dyer Mary Ellen Flanagan	Alfred Stanley Dyer Mary Ellen Flanagan 💍 1899/3643	Bachelor Spinster	Tram Conductor	22 16	Dunedin Dunedin	16 years 16 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	99/3685	John Flanagan, father of minor	24 July 1899	Rev. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
289	25 July 1899	John Black Agnes Johnston	John Black Agnes Johnston 💍 1899/3642	Bachelor Spinster	Lithographer	20 24	Dunedin North East Valley	14 years 10 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral, Dunedin	99/3684	James Black, father of minor	25 July 1899	Rev. John Ryan, Roman Catholic Priest
290	31 July 1899	Alexander Lorimer Euphemia Aitken Heron Chalmers	Alexander Lorimer Euphemia Aitken Heson Chalmers 💍 1899/4475	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	37 26	St. Clair Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the house of Rev. Isaac Jolly, St. Kilda	99/3989		31 July 1899	Rev. Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
291	31 July 1899	David Mason Helen Agnes Fordyce	David Mason Helen Agnes Fordyce 💍 1899/4456	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	21 21	Mornington Mornington	12 years 14 months	In the house of Rev. William Scorgie, Mornington	99/3985		31 July 1899	Rev. W. Scorgie, Presbyterian Minister
292	31 July 1899	Peter Nicholson Annie McIntosh	Peter Nicholson Annie McIntosh 💍 1899/5390	Widower Widow	Railway Employee	64 44	North East Valley North East Valley	20 years 10 months	In the house of Peter Nicholson, North East Valley	99/3739		31 July 1899	Rev. A. Borrie, Presbyterian Minister
293	31 July 1899	James Geddes Jane Kirkland	James Geddes Jane Kirkland 💍 1899/3826	Widower Spinster	Builder	45 30	Green Island Green Island	19 years 30 years	In the house of Mrs. Janet Kirkland, Green Island	99/3980		31 July 1899	Rev. A. Watt, 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).