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 781

District of Shannon Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar William Charles Nation

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
57	6 April 1900	Thomas Arthur Bertram Hudson Minnie Martha Bower	Thomas Arthur Bertram Hudson Minnie Martha Bowen 💍 1900/2929	Bachelor Spinster	Land Agent Domestic duties	30 25	Levin Levin	Five years Six years	Church of England, Levin	00/1846		6 April 1900	Rev W. S. Leach
58	7 April 1900	William Lockhart Fitzherbert Ethel May Hawkins	William Lockhart Fitzherbert Ethel May Hawkins 💍 1900/1251	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor Domestic duties	22 25	Levin Palmerston North	Two years Twelve years	All Saints' Church, Palmerston North	00/1830		7 April 1900	Rev H. F. Hunt
59	14 April 1900	James Frederick Venn Agnes Graham Cameron	James Frederick Venna Agnes Graham Cameron 💍 1900/2930	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	25 17	Levin Levin	Four years Five years	St Andrews' Catholic Church, Levin	00/1847		14 April 1900	Rev Father Melu
60	12 May 1900	Edward Smith Matilda Berquist	Edward Smith Matilda Buquert 💍 1900/2931 Edward Smith Mary Elizabeth Dwyer 💍 1900/1178	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	26 24	Tokomaru Tokomaru	Three years Six years	Residence of Mrs Berquist, Tokomaru	00/1848		12 May 1900	Rev W. Woollass
61	25 May 1900	John Leonard Rhodes Ada Hose	John Leonard Rhodes Ada Hose 💍 1900/2927	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic duties	19 17	Levin Levin	Nine years Eight years	Office of Registrar, Levin	00/1844	John Rhodes, Father; Alfred James Hose, Father	25 May 1900	Mr. C. Nation, Registrar
62	20 June 1900	William Macdonald Wilson Mary Alice Clark	William Macdonald Wilson Mary Alice Clark 💍 1900/2928	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder Domestic duties	21 22	Levin Otaki	Seven days Twenty-two years	Office of Registrar, Levin	00/1845		20 June 1900	Mr. C. Nation, Registrar
63	23 June 1900	Richard Andrew McKenzie Mary Crowther	Richard Andrew McKenzie Mary Crowther 💍 1900/2932	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic duties	33 22	Shannon Shannon	Seven years Ten years	Residence of Mr H. N. Crowther, Shannon	00/1849		23 June 1900	Rev W. Woollass

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).