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 399

District of Timaru Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar Alex. Montgomery

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 Nelson Wedderell Edith Dunnill	William Nelson Wederell Edith Dunnill 💍 1900/1485	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	21 years 16 years	St Andrews St Andrews	15 years 4 years	Dwellinghouse of John Dunnill St Andrews	not solemnized	John Dunnill	2 January 1900	Rev. L. B. Brady Church of England Clergyman
2	4 January 1900	Jeremiah Counihan Elizabeth Edgar Grant	Jeremiah Counihan Elizabeth Edgar Grant 💍 1900/988	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	30 years 33 years	Harrytown Timaru	20 years 3 days	Registrar's office Timaru	00/970		4 January 1900	Alex. Montgomery Registrar
3	11 January 1900	Arthur Percy Ray Henrietta Bessie Robson	Arthur Percy Ray Henrietta Bessie Robson 💍 1900/996	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Shop Assistant	22 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 5 months	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. Newman Buttle Timaru	00/977		11 January 1900	Rev. J. Newman Buttle Wesleyan Minister
4	15 January 1900	James Allan Ethel May Young	James Allan Ethel May Young 💍 1900/42	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	3 years 15 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. Wm. Millies Timaru	00/981		15 January 1900	Rev. Wm. Millies Presbyterian Minister
5	24 January 1900	William McClatchy Elizabeth Latimer	William McClatchy Elizabeth Latimer 💍 1900/12	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	23 years 24 years	Timaru Timaru	23 years 6 years	Dwellinghouse of John McClatchy West Belt Timaru	00/972		24 January 1900	Rev. W. B. Woodward Primitive Methodist Minister
6	24 January 1900	William Nathaniel Barton Bond Ethel Mary Elworthy	William Nathaniel Carlon Bond Ethel Mary Elworthy 💍 1900/2655	Bachelor Spinster	Landowner	33 years 23 years	Lawford Weedons Pareora	4 months 23 years	St Mary's English Church Timaru Weedons	00/1276		24 January 1900	Rev. Frederick Wallis Bishop of Wellington
7	1 February 1900	Philip Scoringe Lillian Constance Smith	Philip Scoringe Lilian Constance Smith 💍 1900/39	Bachelor Spinster	Wharf Labourer	21 years 18 years	Timaru Timaru	2 years 4 years	Dwellinghouse of Smith Beach Road Timaru	00/978	J. Smith father	1 February 1900	Rev. J. Newman Buttle Wesleyan Minister
8	8 February 1900	John McIlroy Ada Rosina Beatrice Skelly	John McIlroy Ada Rosetta Beatrice Skelley 💍 1900/43	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Milliner	30 years 25 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 3 days	Dwellinghouse of John Mc Ilroy Timaru	00/982		8 February 1900	Rev. Wm. Gillies Presbyterian Minister
9	9 February 1900	William Ernest Ferris Esther Adams	William Ernest Ferris Esther Mary Adams 💍 1900/2608	Bachelor Spinster	Fruitgrower Domestic Duties	22 years 22 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 3 days	St Mary's Parsonage Timaru	not solemnized		9 February 1900	Rev. Henry W. Harper Archdeacon Timaru
10	13 February 1900	George Albert Akers Mary Irving	George Albert Aker Mary Irving 💍 1900/995	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Duties	29 years 19 years	Timaru Timaru	28 years 9 years	Presbyterian Church Timaru	00/976	Isabella Irving mother	13 February 1900	Rev. W. B. Woodward Timaru

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).