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 430

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1900 Registrar W. J. Call

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
21	17 January 1900	James Duncan Margaret McCurdy	James Duncan Margaret McCurdy 💍 1900/2332	Widower Spinster	Railway Employe	44 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 30 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/1007		17 January 1900	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
22	17 January 1900	Edwin Thomas Bray Harriet Louisa Anderson	Edwin Thomas Wray Harriet Louisa Anderson 💍 1900/1028	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 23 years	In the house of Andrew Turnbull, Anderson, Leith Street, Dunedin	00/1045		17 January 1900	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
23	18 January 1900	Thomas John Pitts Margaret Weir	Thomas John Pitts Margaret Weir 💍 1900/2468	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	23 22	South Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 6 years	In St. Matthews Church, Dunedin	00/1081		18 January 1900	Revd W. Lowzon Siggers, Church of England Minister
24	18 January 1900	Lancelot Trainor Dallas Walter Margaret Page		Bachelor Spinster	Carter	23 17	Dunedin Dunedin	16 years 17 years	In Knox Church	00/1046	Mary Page, mother of minor	18 January 1900	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
25	20 January 1900	Arthur Vaughan Sarah McLaughlan	Arthur Vaughan Sarah McLaughan 💍 1900/2333	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Fitter	29 21	Dunedin Caversham	2 years 4 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/1008		20 January 1900	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
26	22 January 1900	David Booth Christina Douglas Graham	David Booth Christina Douglas Graham 💍 1900/1006	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 22	Leith Valley Dunedin	27 years 22 years	In the house of Revd William Hewitson, Dunedin	00/1047		22 January 1900	Revd W. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
27	22 January 1900	Alfred William Simmons Ethel Maud Allen	Alfred William Simmons Ethel Maud Allen 💍 1900/2407	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	30 20	Mornington Mornington	20 years 3 years	In the house of Alexander Allen, Mornington	00/1116	Alexander Allen, father of minor	22 January 1900	Revd A. Georgie, Presbyterian Minister

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).