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 658

District of Thames Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar Edward Honiss

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
23	27 April 1900	George Edward Keys Lena Stewart	George Edward Keys Lena Stewart 💍 1900/2832	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	22 26	Thames Thames	8 years 1 year	The Dwelling of Elijah Targett, Pollen St, Thames	00/1568		27 April 1900	Joseph Foster, Church of Christ
24	28 April 1900	Archibald Campbell Elizabeth Leatham	Archibald Campbell Elizabeth Leatham 💍 1900/5891	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	31 32	Thames Thames	31 years 32 years	The Dwelling of William Willetts, Richmond St, Thames	00/1571		28 April 1900	Rev. John Mackenzie, Presbyterian
25	28 April 1900	John Eric Bergstrom Elizabeth Emma Brownett	John Eric Johnstone Elizabeth Emma Brownett 💍 1900/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Draper None	27 18	Thames Thames	2 days 17 years	The Dwelling of Mr. Geo. Simmonds, Landers St	00/1557	William John Simmonds, Guardian	30 April 1900	Rev. Edward Drake, Primitive Methodist
26	1 May 1900	George Henry Leonard Cole Elizabeth Jane Tonkin	George Henry Leonard Cole Elizabeth Jane Tonkin 💍 1900/2816	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver None	23 24	Thames Thames	23 years 24 years	The Dwelling of John Tonkin, Upper Albert St	00/1565		1 May 1900	Rev. J. O'Callaghan, Church of England
27	7 May 1900	George Gillard Mary Britt	George Gillard Mary Britt 💍 1900/2805	Bachelor Spinster	Battery Hand None	24 24	Thames Thames	3 years 24 years	St. Francis Church, Willoughby St	00/1561		7 May 1900	Rev. W. H. Mahoney, Roman Catholic
28	16 May 1900	John Cunneen Agnes Neill Simpson	John Cuneen Agnes Neill Simpson 💍 1900/2799	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	29 21	Thames Thames	2 years 21 years	The Office of the Registrar	00/1556		16 May 1900	Edwd Honiss, 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).