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 296

District of Buller Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar Leonard Sheath

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
814	6 January 1900	Edwin John Alexander Fagan Annie Fleming	Edwin John Alex Ferguson Annie Fleming 💍 1900/649	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic	24 19	Westport Westport	2 years 15 years	Residence of George Fagan, Westport	00/700	George Fagan, Father	6 January 1900	John Hall
815	8 January 1900	Donald Eric Forsyth Amy Poole	Donald Eric Forsyth Amy Poole 💍 1900/658	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolteacher Domestic	30 24	Stanleybrook Westport	1 year 14 years	Anglican Church, Westport	00/702		8 January 1900	H. P. Cood
816	10 January 1900	Thomas Brown Annie Barton	Thomas Brown Annie Barton 💍 1900/669	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	30 27	Westport Westport	2 years 18 years	Residence of Thomas Brown, Westport	00/703		10 January 1900	H. P. Cood
817	20 January 1900	Arthur Leavers Kate Rose Hegarty	Arthur Leaver Kate Rose Hagerty 💍 1900/5882	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Domestic	28 28	Westport Westport	3 years 25 years	Residence of John Smith, Waimangaroa	00/732		20 January 1900	N. York
818	29 January 1900	Graham Henry Jackson Laura Mary Hatton	Graham Henry Jackson Laura Mary Weston 💍 1900/675	Bachelor Spinster	Dentist Domestic	26 22	Westport Westport	2 years 22 years	Anglican Church, Westport	00/704		29 January 1900	H. P. Cood
819	30 January 1900	Edward Francis Heisley Lucy Collins	Edward Francis Hickey Lucy Collins 💍 1900/650	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	26 46	Charleston Westport	20 years 20 years	Roman Catholic Church, Westport	00/701		30 January 1900	Thos. Walshe
820	26 February 1900	Edward Broadwood Jane Thompson	Edward Woodward Jane Thompson 💍 1900/5467	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	25 22	Reefton Westport	15 months 22 years	Residence of Geo. Williams, Westport	00/567		26 February 1900	Thos. Walshe
821	2 March 1900	John Leslie Margaret Hartigan	John Leoni Margaret Hartigan 💍 1900/678	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	24 21	Westport Westport	18 months 21 years	Registrar's Office, Westport	00/707		2 March 1900	Registrar
822	16 March 1900	Alexander McDonnell Ethel May	Alexander McDowell Ethel May 💍 1900/677	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner Domestic	29 22	Westport Westport	6 months 6 months	Residence of John Brown, Westport	00/706		16 March 1900	John Hall
823	30 March 1900	Walter Charles Rhodes Louisa Vitaglisch	Walter Charles Rhodes Louisa Vitaglich 💍 1900/676	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	29 24	Westport Westport	3 years 24 years	Residence of Samuel Vitaglisch, Westport	00/705		30 March 1900	H. P. Cood

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).