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 333

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar J. M. Macferson

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
353	25 August 1899	Thomas Le Comte Catherine Annable	Thomas Le Comte Catherine Amelia Charlotte Manson 💍 1899/3428	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 4 days	Registrars Office	99/3489	25 August 1899	Registrar J. M. Macferson
354	25 August 1899	Robert James Mckenzie Mary Jane Roberts	Robert James McKenzie Mary Jane Roberts 💍 1899/3427 William Samuel Knuckey Mary Jane Roberts 💍 1899/3110	Bachelor Spinster	Lineman	30 28	Christchurch Christchurch	30 years 20 years	Registrars Office	99/3488	25 August 1899	Registrar J. M. Macferson
355	25 August 1899	John Marshall Jane Steel	John Marshall Jane Steel 💍 1899/3568	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman Dressmaker	33 31	Christchurch Spreydon	33 years 16 years	House of Mrs Steel	99/3547	25 August 1899	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
356	26 August 1899	Thomas Leslie Crooke Janet Daisy Smith	Thomas Leslie Crooke Janet Emily Smith 💍 1899/130	Bachelor Spinster	Physician	38 39	Christchurch Avonside	5 months 10 years	Holy Trinity Church	99/3537	26 August 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
357	28 August 1899	William Ayers Susan Going	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 29	Christchurch Christchurch	29 years 29 years	Trinity Church, Avonside		28 August 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Anglican
358	29 August 1899	Fountain Barber Annie Bayliffe	Fountain Barber Annie Bayliffe 💍 1899/3706	Widower Spinster	Bookseller	55 21	Christchurch Amuri	10 years 17 years	Baptist Church, Oxford Terrace	99/3556	29 August 1899	Rev. J. J. Soler, Baptist
359	29 August 1899	John William Wardle Henrietta Home	John William Wardle Henrietta House 💍 1899/5386	Bachelor Spinster	Drover Domestic	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 months	Baptist Church, Christchurch	99/3591	29 August 1899	Rev. W. A. Williams, Baptist
360	30 August 1899	Clarence Arthur Mepples Edith Ada Longman	Clarence Arthur Maples Elizabeth Alice Longman 💍 1899/3429	Bachelor Spinster	Shop Assistant Teacher	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 22 years	Registrars Office	99/3490	30 August 1899	Registrar J. M. Macferson

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).