Intentions to Marry, 1900 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840418, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, September 12 2025

1900 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 169

District of Hastings Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar Robert Brathwaite

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
30	4 July 1900	Frank Lincoln Catherine Woods	Frank Lincoln Catherine Woods 💍 1900/3577	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 22	Hastings Hastings	20 years 22 years	House of J. Lincoln, Hastings	00/3061		4 July 1900	Rev. J. Comrie
31	9 July 1900	Joseph Alexander Jack Alice Heaps	Joseph Alexander Trask Alice Heaps 💍 1900/3556	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	29 21	Hastings Hastings	6 years 3 days	Registrar's Office, Hastings	00/3063		9 July 1900	Robert Brathwaite
32	9 July 1900	Henry James Harman Joanna Cordelia Moore	Henry James Harman Susannah Conolly Moore 💍 1900/3582	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 22	Hastings Hastings	3 days 6 years	House of J. Moore, Hastings	00/3069		9 July 1900	Rev. J. Comrie
33	10 July 1900	John Henry Taylor Emma Louise Clarke	John Henry Taylor Emma Louisa Clarke 💍 1900/5807	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 23	Hastings Hastings	15 years 4 months	Wesleyan Church, Hastings	00/3066		10 July 1900	Rev. J. Wrigley
34	19 July 1900	Joseph Craig Emily Pellow	Joseph Craig Emily Pellow 💍 1900/1796	Bachelor Spinster	Station Hand	25 18	Te Aute, Hawkes Bay Te Aute, Hawkes Bay	7 years 2 years	Te Aute Church	00/3110	William Pellow, father	19 July 1900	Rev. W. Swinburn
35	28 July 1900	Charles Baker Ella Walker	Charles Baker Ella Walker 💍 1900/3557	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 22	Hastings Hastings	2 years 4 months	St. Matthew's, Hastings	00/3064		28 July 1900	Rev. John Hobbs
36	3 August 1900	James Kearns Nellie Wells	James Kearns Nellie Wells 💍 1900/5589	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 21	Hastings Hastings	17 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church, Hastings	00/5790		3 August 1900	Rev. Father Smyth
37	16 August 1900	George Ebbett Eliza Jane Neal	George Ebbett Eliza Maud Neal 💍 1900/3583	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer	27 21	Hastings Napier	27 years 2 years	Residence of Registrar, Napier	00/3070		16 August 1900	Rev. J. Parsonson
38	3 September 1900	John Cameron Sarah Hamilton	John Cameron Sarah Hamilton 💍 1900/3566	Widower Spinster	Labourer	34 Full	Hastings Hastings	3 years 1 week	Residence of Registrar, J. Wrigley, Hastings	00/3067		3 September 1900	Rev. J. Wrigley
39	16 September 1900	Edward Rochford May May Fuzzard	Edward Rosborough Floyd May Fuszard 💍 1900/3558	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 22	Hastings Hastings	5 weeks 22 years	St. Matthew's, Hastings	00/3065		21 September 1900	Rev. J. Hobbs

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).