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 678

District of Eltham Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar James William Middleton

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
23	5 April 1900	Frederick William McGuinness Faith Rackley	Frederick William McGuinness Faith Rackley 💍 1900/1210	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Mangatoki Mangatoki	18 months 18 months	Church of England, Eltham	00/1608	5 April 1900	Rev. E. J. McConnell
24	7 April 1900	Charlton Fearer Winifred Brooking	Charlton Pearce Winifred Brooking 💍 1900/5607	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Kaponga Kaponga	5 years 8 years	Registrar's Office, Eltham	00/1574	7 April 1900	Registrar of Marriages, Eltham
25	18 April 1900	John McCool Catherine McCarthy	John McCool Catherine McCarthy 💍 1900/1211	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 24	Stratford Eltham	4 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church, Eltham	00/1609	18 April 1900	Father Power
26	25 April 1900	Alexander William Aitken Florence May Bulwer	Alex William Aitken Florence May Bulmer 💍 1900/1197	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 27	Mangatoki Mangatoki	8 months 2 years	Residence Bride's father, Mangatoki	00/1619	25 April 1900	Rev. J. McDonald
27	28 April 1900	Ebenezer Worley Margaret Dixon	Eben Worley Margaret Dickson 💍 1900/1212	Bachelor Spinster	Salvation Army Salvation Army	35 27	Eltham Eltham	9 months 3 days	Salvation Army Barracks	00/1610	28 April 1900	Major Brunt S.A.
28	30 April 1900	Frank Muggeridge Annie Duncan	Frank Muggridge Annie Duncan 💍 1900/1198 Frank Puddle Annie Rule 💍 1900/796	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	27 26	Eltham Eltham	3 years 3 months	at the house of Albert Muggeridge, Rotokare Road, Eltham	00/1620	30 April 1900	Rev. McDonald
29	21 May 1900	Albert John Fothergill Elsie Christie	Albert John Frethey Elsie Christie 💍 1900/2787	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Midhurst Mangatoki	4 years 3 years	at the house of her father, Mangatoki	00/1653	21 May 1900	Rev. A. Lochore
30	31 May 1900	Albert Edward Putt Grace Middlemass Bain	Albert Edward Putt Grace Middlemiss Bain 💍 1900/2783	Bachelor Spinster	Factory Manager	27 26	Kaponga Kaponga	4 years 1 year	at the house of the bridegroom	00/1668	31 May 1900	Rev. A. Compton

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).