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 773

District of Palmerston North Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar Robt N. Keeling

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
27	21 May 1900	Gilbert Joseph Hill Annie Hill	Gilbert Joseph Maine Hall Annie Hill 💍 1900/1245	Bachelor Spinster	Cordial maker Dressmaker	25 years 18 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	11 years 18 years	At the house of C. Hill, Palmerston North	00/1825	Charles Hill, father	21 May 1900	Revd S. Lawry, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
28	23 May 1900	John Joseph Learney Mary Frances Brophy	John Joseph Rearney Mary Frances Bropby 💍 1900/3708 John Joseph Connor Mary Frances Blaney 💍 1901/715	Bachelor Spinster	Postal Clerk	27 years 23 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	4 days 6 years	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	00/3197		23 May 1900	Revd P.W. Symons, C.P., Palmerston North
29	26 May 1900	Hector Wassell Rivers Emily Alice Richardson	Hector Wassell Rivers Emily Alice Richardson 💍 1900/1260	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	20 years 20 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	18 years 16 years	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	00/1846	George Thomas Richardson, father; William James Rivers, father	30 May 1900	Robt N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
30	30 May 1900	John Robert Stevens Annie Crook	John Robert Stevens Annie Crook 💍 1900/1261	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 years 21 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 5 years	At the office of the Registrar, Palmerston North	00/1877		30 May 1900	Robt N. Keeling, Registrar, Palmerston North
31	2 June 1900	Charles Edward Pettitt Rose Elizabeth Francis	Charles Edward Pettett Rose Elizabeth Francis 💍 1900/1241	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Needlewoman	22 years 20 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	14 months 13 years	At the house of William George Francis, Palmerston North	00/1821	William George Francis, father	2 June 1900	Revd S. Lawry, Wesleyan Minister, Palmerston North
32	6 June 1900	Robert Ewart Gulbrauson Annie Gulbrauson	Robert Ewart Annie Gulbranson 💍 1900/1240	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 years 19 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	3 days 19 years	At the house of L. Gulbrauson, Palmerston North	00/1820	Laurie Gulbrauson, father	6 June 1900	Revd Jas. Chisholm, Presbyterian Minister, Palmerston North
33	16 June 1900	Aloysius Vernon Dallow Jane Wall	Aloysius Vernon Dallow Jane Wall 💍 1900/3709	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	35 years 23 years	Palmerston North Palmerston North	2 years 6 years	St. Patrick's Church, Palmerston North	00/3198		16 June 1900	Revd P.W. Symons, C.P., Palmerston North

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).