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 250

District of Whanganui Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar John Bates

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	3 July 1900	Robert Alfred Glenn Amy Charlotte Williamson	Robert Alfred Glenn Amy Charlotte Williamson 💍 1900/3614	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Whanganui Whanganui	4 days 2 years	In the residence of Mr. H. B. Williamson, Victoria Avenue, Whanganui	00/3242		3 July 1900	R. M. Ryburn (Presbyterian)
58	7 July 1900	Walter Worfold Pettit Eva Maud Pettit	Walter Worsfold Eva Maud Pettit 💍 1900/1837	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 22	Whanganui Whanganui	3 days 6 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/3235		7 July 1900	John Bates (Registrar)
59	9 July 1900	Stephen Signal Gibson Mary Gibson	Stephen Signal Mary Gibson 💍 1900/3625 James Walter Chapman Taylor Mary Gibson 💍 1900/2772	Bachelor Spinster	Turner	21 23	Whanganui Whanganui	2 years 8 years	Presbyterian Manse, Whanganui	00/3243		9 July 1900	R. M. Ryburn
60	9 July 1900	George Thomas Witt Emilie Harriett James	George Thomas Witt Emilie Harriett James 💍 1900/1838	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	47 27	Whanganui Whanganui	4 days 4 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/3234		9 July 1900	John Bates (Registrar)
61	14 July 1900	Charles Oswald Wentworth Parker Alice Annabell Parker	Charles Oswald Wentworth Parker Alice Annabell 💍 1900/4672	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 19	Whanganui Whanganui	3 weeks 2 weeks	In the residence of Mr. John Annabell, River Bank, Whanganui	00/4692	John Annabell (father)	14 July 1900	Chas. McDonald (Presbyterian)
62	19 July 1900	William Brown Rice Sarah Janet Rice	William Brown Sarah Janet Rice 💍 1900/3632	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 31	Kaitoke No. 3 Line, Whanganui	13 years 31 years	In the residence of Mr. Samuel Rice, No. 3 Line, Whanganui	00/3244		19 July 1900	R. M. Ryburn (Presbyterian)
63	20 July 1900	George Christophic Roberts Emily Jane Bateman	George Christopher Roberts Emily Jane Bateman 💍 1900/3615	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	23 24	Whanganui Whanganui	9 months 3 years	In the residence of Mr. Croton, Victoria Avenue, Whanganui	00/3251		20 July 1900	A. Peters (Baptist)

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).