Intentions to Marry, 1900 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840417, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

1900 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 173

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar Sydney Jas Jago

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
1	2 January 1900	William Hay Crowle Christina Newson	William Henry Crowle Christina Newson 💍 1900/362	Bachelor Spinster	Cabproprietor Domestic	40 19	Napier Napier	20 years 19 years	Bethany Home	00/355	Alfred Newson	2 January 1900	Reverend J A Asher, Presbyterian
2	9 January 1900	Charles Henry John William Price Martha Wood	Charles Henry John William Price Martha Wood 💍 1900/345	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic	25 21	Napier Napier	4 years 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/362		9 January 1900	S. J. Jago, Registrar
3	15 January 1900	William Minty Jacks Annie Frances Burrell	William Minty Jacks Annie Frances Burrell 💍 1900/2667	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller Housemaid	24 24	Napier Napier	1 Month 4 years	Cathedral at Napier	00/1264		15 January 1900	Dean Howell, Church of England
4	20 January 1900	Joseph King Bridget Sheehan	Joseph King Bridget Sheehan 💍 1900/346	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	25 28	Pohui Spit	24 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	00/363		20 January 1900	Dean Grogan, Roman Catholic Priest
5	20 January 1900	Thomas Earl Lindsay Cecilia Mary Lee Ryan	Thomas Earl Lindsay Cecilia Mary Lee Ryan 💍 1900/363	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	30 24	Napier Napier	30 years 3 days	Presbyterian Manse Napier	00/356		20 January 1900	Reverend J A Asher, Presbyterian
6	24 January 1900	Joseph Albert Johnson Mary Gebbie	Joseph Alexander Johnson Mary Gebbie 💍 1900/5919	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Domestic	21 20	Napier Napier	21 years 20 years	Residence of Mrs Gifford, Lucknow Terrace	00/357		24 January 1900	Reverend J A Asher, Presbyterian
7	29 January 1900	Reginald Herbert Dodd Ellen Mole	Reginald Herbert Dodd Ellen Mole 💍 1900/2668	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	34 23	Napier Napier	4 days 23 years	Cathedral at Napier	00/1265		29 January 1900	Reverend A F Gardiner, Church of England
8	31 January 1900	James Carlaw Helen Black	James Carlaw Helen Black 💍 1900/48	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	32 28	Napier Napier	16 Months 14 Months	Roman Catholic Church Napier	00/364		31 January 1900	Dean Grogan, Roman Catholic

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).