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 250

District of WELLINGTON Quarter ending 30 September 1899 Registrar W.W. Mansfield

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
328	9 August 1899	Joseph Louis Gannard Alice Mary Lucas	Joseph Louis Garrard Alice Mary Luke 💍 1899/3524	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Music Teacher	26 24	Wellington Wellington	6 years 24 years	Wesley Church, Taranaki St, Wellington	99/3383	9 August 1899	Rev. H. C. Oliver
329	11 August 1899	Timothy O'Brien Anastasia Hearse	Timothy O'Brien Anastatia Hearn 💍 1899/3344	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 28	Wellington Wellington	15 years 4 years	St. Mary's Chapel, Hill St, Wellington	99/3378	11 August 1899	Rev. H. J. C. Lewis
330	12 August 1899	Alfred Southee Matilda Ann Simpson	Alfred Southee Matilda Ann Simpson 💍 1899/3363	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 24	Upper Hutt Upper Hutt	25 years 23 years	Residence of Mr. Simpson, Upper Hutt	99/3372	12 August 1899	Rev. Andrew Gray
331	14 August 1899	John Peter Grant Rebecca Elizabeth Hanford	John Peter Grant Rebecca Elizabeth Hanford 💍 1899/3357	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 21	Petone Petone	4 years 3 years	Church of England, Petone	99/3366	14 August 1899	Rev. John D. Russell
332	15 August 1899	Carl Julius Poulson Sarah Johnson	Carl Julius Poulson Sarah Johnson 💍 1899/76 William Vivian Sarah Johnson 💍 1899/5051	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 23	Akatarawa, Upper Hutt Ebdentown, Upper Hutt	9 years 18 years	Registrar's Office, Wellington	99/3302	15 August 1899	Registrar W. W. Mansfield
333	16 August 1899	William Henry Green Amy Constance Player	William Henry Green Amy Constance Player 💍 1899/3360	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	35 21	Blenheim Wellington	13 years 1 month	Residence of Mr. Frank Haled, Smith & Hawker St, Wellington	99/3369	16 August 1899	Mr. Frank Haled
334	16 August 1899	John Sheppard Josephine Ellison	John Sheppard Josephine Ellison 💍 1899/3517	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	29 21	Wellington Wellington	5 years 4 1/2 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Brooks Taranaki St, Wellington	99/3332	16 August 1899	Rev. H. C. Oliver

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).