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 793

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 June 1900 Registrar Frederick William Mansfield

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
175	5 April 1900	George Jeffery Tuckey Frances Cooper	George Tuckey Jeffery Frances Cooper 💍 1900/3041	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	27 23	Wellington Wellington	5 years 2 years	St. Peter's Church, Wellington	00/2023		5 April 1900	Rev. W. Waters
176	5 April 1900	Frederick William Pethybridge Edith Swanson	Frederick William Pethybridge Edith Swanson 💍 1900/1878	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker	35 28	Wellington Wellington	18 years 10 years	St. Paul's pro Cathedral, Wellington	00/3353		5 April 1900	Rev. T. H. Sprott
177	5 April 1900	Joseph William Backhouse Mary McMullan	Joseph William Backhouse Mary McMullan 💍 1900/2960	Widower Spinster	Clerk	33 25	Wellington Wellington	30 years 6 years	Registrar's Office	00/1877		5 April 1900	F. W. Mansfield, Registrar
178	5 April 1900	David Brown Grace Maud Cole	David Brown Grace Maud Cole 💍 1900/3737	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 21 years	Rev. C. S. Ogg's Manse, Wellington	00/3328		5 April 1900	Rev. C. S. Ogg
179	5 April 1900	John Draper Margaret Lysaght Murphy	John Draper Margaret Lysath Murphy 💍 1900/1325	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 22	Pahautanni Pahautanni	23 years 22 years	St. Joseph's Church, Pahautanni	00/1981		5 April 1900	Rev. Jno. T. Lane
180	6 April 1900	Robert Hartley Wicksteed Eliza Mary Reston	Robert Hartley Wickstead Eliza Mary Reston 💍 1900/2987	Bachelor Spinster	Station hand	28 24	Wellington Wellington	3 days 23 years	St. John's Church, Wellington	00/1917		6 April 1900	Rev. Jas. Paterson
181	6 April 1900	Thomas Senior McArthur Mary Cullen		Bachelor Spinster	Foreman Cloth Finisher	24 24	Petone Petone	2 years 8 years	Residence of McArthur, Bay Street, Petone	00/1997		6 April 1900	Rev. Alexander Thomson
182	9 April 1900	Charles Frederick Aberhart Isabel Bently Stephens	Charles Frederick Aberhart Isabel Bently Stephens 💍 1900/1333	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 18	Wellington Wellington	7 days 2 years	Residence of Wm. Stephens, 17 Hugh Street, Wellington	00/1988	Wm. Stephens, father	10 April 1900	Rev. E. C. Lawry

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).