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 330

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 July 1900 Registrar J. Ward

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
1176	2 July 1900	Hugh Alexander Langstone Florence Hayman	Hugh Alexander Livingstone Florence Hayman 💍 1900/5155	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Printer	27 23	Matanui Tinwald	2 years 9 months	Registrar's Office Ashburton	00/4979		2 July 1900	J. Ward, Registrar
1177	3 July 1900	Henry Gordon Ida May Smith	Henry Gordon Ida May Smith 💍 1900/1976	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Dundas Seafield Road, Ashburton	2 years 21 years	Private dwelling of Benjamin Smith, Seafield Road	00/3506		3 July 1900	Revd Robert Raine
1178	10 July 1900	William Stockdill Ann Davison	William Stockdill Annie Davison 💍 1900/1977	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 21	Marniti Ashburton Millowby	3 days 8 years	Presbyterian Church, Tinwald	00/3507		10 July 1900	Revd James Staines
1179	10 July 1900	Samuel Barnett Ellen Elizabeth Williams	Samuel Barnett Florence Elizabeth Williams 💍 1900/5481	Bachelor Spinster	Methodist Minister Dressmaker	30 31	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 7 years	Wesleyan Church, Ashburton	00/5685		10 July 1900	Revd Thomas Lee
1180	12 July 1900	Hugh McLennan Annie Alice Lewes		Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Housekeeper	31 27	South Rakaia Tinwald	4 years 22 years	Private residence of Francis Lewes, at Tinwald	00/3509		12 July 1900	Revd William Lamb
1181	16 July 1900	Frederick Nevill Eleanor Cleland	Frederick Nevill Eleanor Cleland 💍 1900/5156	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	25 28	Willowby Ashburton	7 years 12 years	Registrar's Office Ashburton	00/4980		16 July 1900	J. Ward, Registrar
1182	26 July 1900	Ralph Francis Keating Alice Maud Lynch	Ralph Francis Meaking Alice Maud Lynch 💍 1900/5540	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter School Teacher	25 26	Ashburton Ashburton	2 years 1 year	Catholic Presbytery, Ashburton	00/5688		26 July 1900	Revd J. J. O'Donnell
1183	7 August 1900	Francis Frederick Rose Ada Jane Child	Francis Frederick Rose Ada Jane Childs 💍 1900/1980	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Dressmaker	25 25	Ashburton Ashburton	25 years 25 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	00/3510		7 August 1900	Revd R. A. Woodthorpe
1184	21 August 1900	Thomas Nevill Digby Elizabeth Mitchell	Thomas Nevill Digby Elizabeth Mitchell 💍 1900/3874	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	51 35	Ashburton Brookside	32 years 30 years	Dwellinghouse of Charles Mitchell, Brookside	See 1185 below		21 August 1900	Revd W. H. Best
1185	28 August 1900	Thomas Nevill Digby Elizabeth Mitchell	Thomas Nevill Digby Elizabeth Mitchell 💍 1900/3874	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	51 35	Ashburton Brookside	32 years 30 years	Dwellinghouse of Charles Mitchell, Brookside	00/3670		28 August 1900	Revd W. H. Best
1186	1 September 1900	George Boulden Annie Candy	George Boulton Annie Candy 💍 1900/1981	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	28 25	Ealing Downes	5 years 12 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	00/3511	Walter Candy, Father	1 September 1900	Revd R. A. Woodthorpe

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).