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 514

District of Tokomairiro Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar R. C. Black

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
841	6 January 1900	Alfred Ernest Jones Margaret Akin Islay McGregor	Alfred Ernest Jones Margaret Atkin Islay McGregor 💍 1900/1035	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Factory hand	29 24	Milton Milton	29 years Life	House of Bride's Father, Milton	00/1230		6 January 1900	George Hounsell
842	16 January 1900	James Ridgwell Jane Gray	James Ridgwell Jane Gray 💍 1900/1046	Bachelor Spinster	Rabbiter Dressmaker	33 29	Hillend Hillend	7 years Life	House of Mrs. Annie Gray, Hillend	00/1231		16 January 1900	P. B. Fraser
843	5 February 1900	George Meara Jane Smith	George McAra Jane Smith 💍 1900/1057 Alfred Harry Hawker Jane Smith 💍 1900/794	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Home duties	30 21	Maori Hill, Dunedin Waihola	Life 21 years	House of Bride's Father, Waihola	00/1236	Father, Waihola	5 February 1900	George Jasomerville
844	13 February 1900	Patrick Hessian Mary Hanley	Patrick Hessian Mary Hanly 💍 1900/5582	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Moulder Domestic Servant	27 26	Milton Milton	3 days Life	Roman Catholic Church, Milton	00/5539		13 February 1900	James O'Neill
845	27 February 1900	Claus Muller Eliza Ingram	Claus Miller Eliza Ingram 💍 1900/1053	Widower Widow	Farmer Home duties	57 52	Manuka Creek Manuka Creek	27 years 30 years	Presbyterian Manse, Milton	00/1232		27 February 1900	George Miller
846	21 March 1900	Alexander Campbell Margaret Millar Bryce	Alexander Campbell Margaret Millar Bryce 💍 1900/1054	Widower Spinster	Commission Agent Home duties	31 29	Milton Milton	31 years 29 years	House of Thomas Bryce, Milton	00/1233		21 March 1900	George Miller
847	22 March 1900	David Charles Stewart Harriet Ingram	David Charles Stewart Harriet Ingram 💍 1900/1055	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Home duties	25 23	Manuka Creek Manuka Creek	25 years 23 years	Presbyterian Manse, Milton	00/1234		22 March 1900	George Miller
848	23 March 1900	William Park Margaret McLaren Mills	William Park Margaret McLaren Mills 💍 1900/1056	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer Home duties	25 25	Table Hill Table Hill	24 years 25 years	House of Thomas Mills, Table Hill	00/1235		23 March 1900	Geo. Miller

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).