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 545

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar E. H. Lyons

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
236	18 April 1900	William Webster Eliza King	William Webster Eliza King 💍 1900/1129	Bachelor Widow	Cabman	53 53	Auckland Auckland	20 years 30 years	House of Bride, 30 Franklin Road	00/1339	18 April 1900	Rev. R. H. Macnicol, Presbyterian
237	18 April 1900	Alfred Joseph Smith Sarah Matthews	Alfred Joseph South Sarah Matthews 💍 1900/2757	Bachelor Widow	Cook	38 38	Auckland Auckland	1 year 3 years	House of Bride, 3 Hobson Street	00/1425	18 April 1900	Major W. Deweett, Salvation Army
238	19 April 1900	John Harley Charlotte Elizabeth Bleazly Smyth	John Harley Charlotte Elizabeth Bleazby Smyth 💍 1900/1130	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	31 26	Auckland Auckland	6 days 26 years	St. James' Manse	00/1340	19 April 1900	Rev. R. H. Macnicol, Presbyterian
239	20 April 1900	Joseph Frederick Soffe Emily Spindley	Joseph Frederick Soffe Emily Spinley 💍 1900/2735	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	36 32	Auckland Auckland	7 days 8 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Pitt Street	00/1394	20 April 1900	Rev. W. Laycock, Primitive Methodist
240	20 April 1900	Samuel Tanner Elizabeth Andrew	Samuel Tanner Elizabeth Andrew 💍 1900/1136	Widower Spinster	Farmer	34 29	Auckland Auckland	1 week 29 years	House of Father of Bride, Pakuranga	00/1457	20 April 1900	Rev. D. J. Steele, Presbyterian
241	20 April 1900	James Anderson Annie Ingleby	James Anderson Annie Ingleby 💍 1900/2560	Widower Spinster	Settler	59 49	Auckland Auckland	37 years 5 years	Registrar's Office, Auckland	00/1304	20 April 1900	E. H. Lyons, Registrar

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).