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 308

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar Hugh Calders

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
1	9 January 1900	William Hope Simpson Lonie Penney	William Hope Simpson Louie Penney 💍 1900/665	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Dressmaker	27 26	Trafalgar St Nelson Kawai Street Nelson	4 years 20 years	The residence of James Penney, Kawai St Nelson	00/718	9 January 1900	Rev. E. C. Isaac, Congregational Minister
2	9 January 1900	Alexander Haldane Constance Lucy Anne Coleman	Alexander Haldane Constance Annie Lucy Coleman 💍 1900/672	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	33 21	Richmond Hope	3 days 16 years	Holy Trinity Church Richmond	00/724	9 January 1900	Rev. A. C. Wright, Church of England Minister
3	29 January 1900	Charles Moyes Jane Alice Lines	Charles Moyes Jane Alice Lines 💍 1900/666	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Domestic duties	33 31	Bridge Street Nelson Wellington St Nelson	33 years 4 Weeks	Trinity Presbyterian Church	00/719	29 January 1900	Rev. J. H. MacKenzie, Presbyterian Minister
4	15 February 1900	Arthur Ralph Evans Lydia McArtney	Arthur Ralph Evans Lydia McArtney 💍 1900/707	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Milliner	25 28	Bridge Street Nelson Bridge Street Nelson	3 days 6 weeks	All Saints Church	00/727	15 February 1900	Rev. J. W. Chatterton, Church of England Minister
5	24 February 1900	Alfred Kendall Baxter Alice Day	Alfred Kendall Baxter Alice Day 💍 1900/671	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Domestic Servant	25 24	Washington Road Nelson Hampden Street Nelson	2 months 24 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church	00/723	24 February 1900	Rev. W. J. Mahoney, Roman Catholic Minister
6	7 March 1900	Alfred Davies Nellie Hogg	Alfred Davies Nellie Hogg 💍 1900/5470	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic duties	34 25	Gloucester Street Nelson Collingwood Street Nelson	15 years 1 year	Christ Church, Trafalgar Square, Nelson	00/5675	7 March 1900	Rev. J. P. Kempthorne, Church of England Minister
7	8 March 1900	George Johnson Silcock Emma Mary Louisa Schroder	George Johnson Silcock Emma Mary Louisa Schroder 💍 1900/714	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	27 22	Richmond Britannia Heights Nelson	18 months 6 months	Residence of Vere Bogle, Wellington Terrace, Nelson	00/728	8 March 1900	Rev. J. W. Chatterton, Church of England Minister
8	10 March 1900	Reginald Bernard Humphris Geraldine Seymour Full	Reginald Bernard Humphries Geraldine Seymour Fell 💍 1900/5471	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Domestic duties	27 26	Grove Street Nelson Brougham Street Nelson	3 days 26 years	Christ Church, Trafalgar Square, Nelson	00/5676	10 March 1900	Rt. Rev. The Bishop of Nelson, Church of England Minister
9	12 March 1900	Robert Leslie Stewart Adeline Black	Robert Leslie Stewart Adeline Black 💍 1900/670	Bachelor Spinster	Wholesale Stationer Music Teacher	27 27	Mount Street Nelson Franklyn Street Nelson	3 days 27 years	The residence of Robert Black	00/722	12 March 1900	Rev. R. S. Gray, Baptist Minister
10	26 March 1900	Frederick Stephen Hammond Zoe Best	Frederick Stephen Hammond Zoe Best 💍 1900/673	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	24 24	Appleby Appleby	3 days 24 years	St. Aubin's Church	00/725	26 March 1900	Rev. A. C. Wright, Church of England Minister
11	28 March 1900	John Morrison Helen Blanche Calders	John Morrison Helen Blanche Calders 💍 1900/667	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer Domestic duties	30 24	Stoke Stoke	4 days 4 months	Trinity Presbyterian Church	00/720	28 March 1900	Rev. J. H. MacKenzie, Presbyterian Minister

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).