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 323

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar William George Douglas

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	2 January 1900	John Neilon Rebecca Jamieson	John Neilson Rebecca Jamieson 💍 1900/750	Bachelor Widow	Miner Hotelkeeper	56 46	Hokitika Hokitika	5 days 5 days	Anglican Church	00/754	2 January 1900	Revd H. F. Hawkins
2	3 January 1900	William Charles Dick Mary Louisa Lawson	William Charles Dick Mary Louisa Dawson 💍 1900/769	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmiller Domestic	24 22	Three Mile Three Mile	24 years 22 years	Residence of James Dick	00/749	3 January 1900	Revd W. Douglas
3	6 January 1900	Abel Webber Mary Osmers	Abel Webber Mary Osmers 💍 1900/748	Widower Divorced	Cooper Nurse	62 38	Hokitika Hokitika	9 months 6 months	Registrar's Office	00/752	6 January 1900	Registrar Hokitika
4	13 January 1900	William Meharry Jane Carr Duff Meharry	William Meharry Jane Carr Duff Meharry 💍 1900/770	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic	23 25	Hokatahi Hokatahi	5 months 25 years	Presbyterian Church	00/750	13 January 1900	Revd W. Douglas
5	20 March 1900	John Bryan Wilhelmine Fowler	John Bryan Wilhelmina Fowler 💍 1900/749	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Housekeeper	50 35	Rimu Rimu	20 years 8 years	Registrar's Office	00/753	20 March 1900	Registrar Hokitika
6	28 March 1900	George Falla Elizabeth Kirk	George Falla Elizabeth Kirk 💍 1900/771	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Spinster	34 24	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 25 years	Presbyterian Church	00/751	28 March 1900	Revd W. Douglas
7	31 March 1900	James Jack Marion Bain Jack	James Park Marion Bain Jack 💍 1900/1362	Widower Spinster	Barrister & Solicitor Teacher	45 24	Hokitika Hokitika	16 years 24 years	Residence of Revd W. Douglas	00/730	31 March 1900	Revd W. Douglas

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).