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 700

District of Dannevirke Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar William James Walsh

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
7	5 April 1900	Peter Petersen Johanna Silfrihan Reid	Peter Petersen Johanna Gifillan Reid 💍 1900/1169	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	30 30	Dannevirke Dannevirke	6 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church	00/1677		5 April 1900	Rev. A. Grant - Pres.
8	14 April 1900	Sidney Fessenden Edith Emily Oliver	Sidney Fissenden Edith Emily Oliver 💍 1900/1232	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 22	Dannevirke Dannevirke	1 year 7 months	Church of England	00/1684		14 April 1900	Rev. E. Robertshawe - Ang.
9	17 April 1900	George Slade Mary McAvoy	George Slade Mary McAvoy 💍 1900/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 21	Dannevirke Dannevirke	12 years 9 years	Presbyterian Church	00/1679		17 April 1900	Rev. A. Grant - Pres.
10	18 April 1900	John Fraser Kate Donnelly	John Fraser Kate Donnelly 💍 1900/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 29	Dannevirke Dannevirke	6 years 4 years	J. McDermott's dwelling house	00/1683		18 April 1900	Rev. J. P. Cahill - R.C.
11	21 April 1900	Isaac Plunkett Laura May McKenzie	Isaac Plunkett Laura May McKennie 💍 1900/1170	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 22	Dannevirke Dannevirke	1 year 3 months	Presbyterian Church	00/1678		21 April 1900	Rev. A. Grant - Pres.
12	8 May 1900	Will Gardiner Ruth Lush	Will Gardiner Ruth Lush 💍 1900/1162	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Shop Assistant	37 30	Dannevirke Dannevirke	6 years 4 years	Miss R. Lush's dwelling house	00/1680		8 May 1900	Rev. A. Grant - Pres.
13	16 May 1900	James Scully Irene Lilian Hamilton	James Scully Irene Cilian Hamilton 💍 1900/1167	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	28 21	Mangatoro, Dannevirke Dannevirke	3 years 7 years	Wesleyan Church	00/1695		16 May 1900	Rev. M. K. Gilmour - Wm.
14	30 May 1900	John Taylor Redpath Agnes Smith	John Taylor Redpath Agnes Smith 💍 1900/1214	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	28 19	Oringi, Dannevirke Oringi, Dannevirke	8 years 19 years	Mr. Alex. Smith's dwelling house, Oringi	00/1581	Alexander Smith, father	30 May 1900	Rev. A. Grant - Pres.
15	21 June 1900	William Edwards Jessie Muriel Brown	William Edwards Jessie Muriel Brown 💍 1900/1168	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	22 21	Dannevirke Dannevirke	3 months 3 days	Mr. J. Chamois' dwelling house	00/1676		21 June 1900	Rev. M. K. Gilmour - Wm.
16	26 June 1900	Harry Randolph Parker Soring Adeline Beatrice Trainor	Harry Randolph Parker Goring Adeline Beatrice Trainor 💍 1900/1225	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Hand Dressmaker	26 19	Dannevirke Dannevirke	5 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	00/1682	Mary Trainor, mother	26 June 1900	Rev. J. P. Cahill - R.C.

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).