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 327

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

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
308	18 July 1899	John Mackay Donald Hill Anna Sarah Hill Catherine Gloister	John Mackay Donald Hill Anna Sarah Catherine Gloistein 💍 1899/3565	Bachelor Spinster	Manager	27 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 23 years	St. James Church, Harewood Rd	99/3544		18 July 1899	Rev. H. J. Purchas, Anglican
309	21 July 1899	Edward Frederick Hughes Emily Elizabeth Palmer	Edward Frederick Hughes Emma Elizabeth Palmer 💍 1899/3391	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 20	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 6 months	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	99/3476	Henry Palmer, Father	21 July 1899	Registrar, J. M. Macfarlane
310	24 July 1899	John Foster Alice Hagerty	John Foster Alice Hagerty 💍 1899/3695	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 3 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	99/3569		24 July 1899	Rev. Arch. Leugard, Anglican
311	24 July 1899	James Joseph McAmigan Ada Florence Ludlow	James Joseph McSwigan Ada Florence Ludlow 💍 1899/3438	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	31 19	Christchurch Christchurch	10 months 10 months	Roman Catholic Church, Barbados St.	99/3498	Lucy Ludlow, Mother	24 July 1899	Rev. R. Richards, Roman Catholic
312	25 July 1899	Osborne Alderson Keep Jane Douglas	Absolom Alderson Hesp Jane Douglas 💍 1899/3424	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	18 18	Templeton Christchurch	18 years 10 days	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	99/3477	Robert Keep, Father; Hugh Douglas, Father	25 July 1899	Registrar, J. M. Macfarlane
313	26 July 1899	Albert Bandley Mary Twiggs Ellis	Albert Bradley Mary Twiggs Ellis 💍 1899/3801	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	29 25	St. Albans St. Albans	20 years 1 year	Trinity Church, Avonside	99/3955		26 July 1899	Rev. W. A. Pascoe, Avonside, Anglican
314	26 July 1899	Samuel Dick Jessie Scott	Samuel Dick Jessie Scott 💍 1899/3463	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner Tailoress	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 5 years	House of Mr. A. A. Scott, Durhams Rd, St. Albans	99/3523		26 July 1899	Rev. R. Scott Allan, Presbyterian
315	28 July 1899	Charles Herbert Browne Constance Ethel Browne	Charles Herbert Black Constance Ethel Kennaway-Browne 💍 1899/3696	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Nurse	33 24	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 20 years	St. Lukes Church, Christchurch	99/3570		28 July 1899	Rev. Arch. Leugard, Anglican

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).