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 746

District of Feilding Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar Edward Packer Bowles

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
593	3 April 1900	Ernest Clinton May Sarah Emily Harris	Ernest Clinton Way Sarah Emily Harris 💍 1900/2912	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	25 21	Feilding Feilding	3 years 3 years	Residence of John Pollock	00/1760		3 April 1900	Rev Thomas W. Vealie
594	12 April 1900	William George Kemp Mabel Beatrice Hill	William George Kemp Mabel Beatrice Hill 💍 1900/2925	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 19	Feilding Feilding	3 weeks 6 weeks	Primitive Methodist Parsonage	00/1767	John Hill, Father	12 April 1900	Rev J. W. Jones
595	12 April 1900	Alexander Sangster Selina Emily Tappin	Alexander Sangster Selina Emily Tappin 💍 1900/2924	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	25 21	Cheltenham Cheltenham	2 years 20 years	Church of England	00/1766		12 April 1900	Rev J. R. Cassell
596	18 April 1900	James Heathcote Livingston Mary Ellen Barry	James Heathcote Livingston Mary Ellen Barry 💍 1900/2919	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Music Teacher	23 29	Feilding Feilding	4 days 4 days	Registrars office	00/1761		18 April 1900	Registrar
597	19 April 1900	Albert Arthur Hawker Mary Ellen Heald	Albert Arthur Hawker Mary Ellen Heald 💍 1900/2903	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 25	Feilding Feilding	9 months 7 years	Primitive Methodist Church	00/1769		19 April 1900	Rev P. W. Jones
598	20 April 1900	Albert Ayres Mary Pask	Albert Ayers Mary Pask 💍 1900/2902	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 25	Feilding Makino	10 months 24 years	Residence of Brides father	00/1798		20 April 1900	Rev P. W. Jones
599	12 May 1900	Charles Herbert Clare Mathilde Louise Bensemann	Charles Herbert Clare Mathilda Louise Bensemann 💍 1900/2904	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 24	Waituna West Waituna West	4 days 3 months	Residence of John Bensemann	00/1790		12 May 1900	Rev Samuel Henderson
600	22 May 1900	Henry George Smith Clarence Florence Short	Henry George Smith Clarice Florence Short 💍 1900/2922	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 24	Feilding Feilding	1 month 3 years	Residence of Mrs Short	00/1764		22 May 1900	Rev Charles Murray

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).