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 348

District of [illegible] Quarter ending [illegible] Registrar J. M. Walkerson

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
74	6 February 1900	Wallis James White Lucy Ellen Mary Pickering	Walter James White Lucy Ellen Mary Pickering 💍 1900/2317	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	29 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 25 Years	St. Saviours Church, Sydenham	00/924	6 February 1900	Rev. E. A. Serle, Anglican
75	6 February 1900	Magnus James Allan Hough Charlotte Newburgh	Magnus James Allan Hough Charlotte Newburgh 💍 1900/899	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 23 Years	Congregational Church, Linwood	00/908	6 February 1900	Rev. J. Sarginson, Anglican
76	6 February 1900	William Albert Weardley Louie Kinsman	William Albert Weakley Louie Kinsman 💍 1900/2274	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Tailoress	23 23	Christchurch Christchurch	23 Years 23 Years	St. John's Church, Latimer Square	00/850	6 February 1900	Rev. Rutter Watson, Anglican
77	6 February 1900	William Thomas Turner Emily Etheridge	William Thomas Turner Emily Etheridge 💍 1900/879	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	24 25	Christchurch Christchurch	22 Years 25 Years	Baptist Church, Oxford Terrace	00/887	6 February 1900	Rev. J. J. Bode, Baptist
78	6 February 1900	John Lawrence Rosedale Sarah Ann Overan		Bachelor Spinster	Dealer Domestic	36 25	Templeton Templeton	20 Years 25 Years	Wesleyan Church, Lower High Street	not solemnized	6 February 1900	Rev. J. A. Ross, Wesleyan
79	7 February 1900	Philip John Henry Davis Minnie Wilson	Philip John Henry Davis Minnie Wilson 💍 1900/2455	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Manager Domestic	25 25	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 1 Week	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	00/799	7 February 1900	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Walkerson
80	8 February 1900	Joseph William Poynton Ada Edmonds Macgregor	Joseph William Poynton Ada Edmonds Macgregor 💍 1900/900	Bachelor Spinster	Stipendiary Magistrate Milliner	38 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 Weeks	House of Mr. John Macgregor, Lincoln Road, Sydenham	00/909	8 February 1900	Rev. S. Burgess, Congregationalist
81	9 February 1900	Frederick James Wilkes Eleanor Bosomworth	Frederick James Wilkes Eleanor Broomworth 💍 1900/2302	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher Domestic	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	6 years 14 years	House of Mr. J. Bosomworth, Marshlands	00/929	9 February 1900	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan

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).