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 652

District of Te Aroha Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar Thomas Edward Clowch

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
4	14 April 1900	Randal Crowley Sarah Cartwright Finnerty	Randal Crowley Sarah Cartwright Finnerty 💍 1900/2713	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 17	Waihi at present Waharoa Waharoa	4 days 14 years	The residence of Mr John Finnerty Waharoa	00/1539	John Finnerty, Father	14 April 1900	Edgar Jas McFarland, Ch of England
5	19 April 1900	Edwin Arthur Devey Ethel May Rowe	Edwin Arthur Devey Ethel May Rowe 💍 1900/2791	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 23	Te Aroha Te Aroha	18 years 3 years	St Marks Church of England Te Aroha	00/1540		17 April 1900	Edgar Jas McFarland, Ch of England
6	9 May 1900	Campbell Jackson Emily Otto	Campbell Jackson Emily Otto 💍 1900/2802	Widower Widow	Farmer Bath attendant	60 43	Pokeno at present Te Aroha Te Aroha	4 days 2 years	St Marks Church of England Te Aroha	00/1541		9 May 1900	Edgar Jas McFarland, Ch of England
7	19 May 1900	Robert Bellamy Mary Lusby	Robert Bellamy Mary Lusby 💍 1900/2813	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	19 21	Waitoa Waitoa	3 years 14 years	The residence of Mr George Lusby Waitoa	00/1546	Samuel Bellamy, Father	19 May 1900	Samuel Griffith, Wesleyan
8	25 May 1900	Francis Philip Louis Auguetil Mazey Annie Omeacher	Francis Philip Louis Anquetil Mazey Annie O'Meagher 💍 1900/2809	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Postal Department Teacher	32 22	Auckland at present Te Aroha Devonport at present Te Aroha	5 days 6 days	St Marks Church of England Te Aroha	00/1542		25 May 1900	Edgar Jas McFarland, Ch of England
9	5 June 1900	Kenneth Eric Ross Florence Priscilla Smallman	Kenneth Eric Ross Florence Priscilla Smallman 💍 1900/2810	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 19	Gisborne at present Te Aroha Te Aroha	7 days 19 years	The residence of Mrs Harriett Smallman Mangaore near Te Aroha	00/1543	Harriett Smallman, Mother	5 June 1900	Edgar Jas McFarland, Ch of England
10	6 June 1900	Walter Robert Stanley Smith Susan Elizabeth Bakes	Walter Robert Stanley Smith Susan Elizabeth Bates 💍 1900/2814	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Nurse	46 46	Te Aroha Te Aroha	1 year 2 years	The residence of Miss Susan E Bakes Te Aroha	00/1549		6 June 1900	Samuel Griffith, 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).