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 234

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1899

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
65	12 July 1899	Frederick Percy Walkley Minnie Hainsworth	Frederick Percy Walkley Minnie Hainsworth 💍 1899/4385	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 26	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 2 weeks	In the residence of Mr. E. Hainsworth, Nickslead St., Whanganui	99/3908		12 July 1899	G. Bond, Wesleyan
66	22 July 1899	James Williamson Elizabeth Stratton	James Williamson Elizabeth Stratton 💍 1899/3284	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	22 26	Port Chalmers Whanganui	3 months 3 months	In the residence of Mr. G. J. Berowe, Sydney Place, Whanganui	99/3279		22 July 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
67	26 July 1899	James Devane Mary Moynihan	James Devane Mary Moynihan 💍 1899/4389	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 28	Whanganui Whanganui	6 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, Whanganui	99/3912		26 July 1899	P. W. Symons, Catholic
68	28 July 1899	Thomas Walter Cole Isabel Reynolds	Thomas Walter Cole Isabel Reynolds 💍 1899/3285	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 31	Whanganui Whanganui	15 years 20 years	In the residence of Mr. C. Reynolds, Maria Place, Whanganui	99/3280		28 July 1899	R. M. Ryburn, Presbyterian
69	29 July 1899	Robert Ryan Phoebe Mixey	Robert Ryan Phoebe Wixcey 💍 1899/4390	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	30 19	Whanganui Whanganui	2 years 19 years	Roman Catholic Church, Whanganui	99/3913	Thomas Henry Mixey, Father	29 July 1899	C. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic
70	8 August 1899	Robert Martell Blythe Annie Elizabeth Minslade	Robert Martell Blythe Annie Elizabeth Winslade 💍 1899/3293	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	Whanganui Whanganui	22 years 21 years	In the residence of Mr. G. Minslade, Wilson St., Whanganui	99/3288		8 August 1899	J. Cocker, Primitive Methodist
71	10 August 1899	George Alfred Shaddick Catherine Celia Couchman	George Alfred Shaddick Catherine Celia Couchman 💍 1899/3302	Bachelor Widow	Metal Turner	29 31	Aramoho Aramoho	1 year 1 year	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Whanganui	99/3273		10 August 1899	The Registrar

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).