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 360

District of Ellesmere Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar C.S. Dealey

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
5	4 July 1900	William Sisley Cresswell Sarah Jane Connally	William Sisley Cresswell Sarah Jane Connolly 💍 1900/3862	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic	33 26	Ch Ch Leeston	33 years 15 years	House of R.H. Connally, Leeston	00/3664		4 July 1900	Rev. W. Grant
6	10 July 1900	Robert James Harper Annie Maud Harper	Robert James Young Annie Maud Harper 💍 1900/3869	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	22 22	Rakaia Leeston	9 months 22 years	Salvation Army Barracks, Leeston	00/3665		10 July 1900	Rev. W. Grant
7	17 July 1900	James Pollock Mary Maria Stephens	James Pollock Mary Maria Stephens 💍 1900/2029	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Manager Housekeeper	24 27	Dunsandel Dunsandel	3 years 3 years	St. Luke's Church, Hororata	00/3661		17 July 1900	Rev. W. Orwell
8	23 August 1900	Thomas Millar Annie Thorsen	Thomas Millar Annie Thorsen 💍 1900/3873	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 25	Irwell Lakeside	25 years 1 month	Residence of Thorsen, Lakeside	00/3669		23 August 1900	Rev. W. Beck
9	25 August 1900	Charles Style Kate Kendall	Charles Styles Kate Kendall 💍 1900/3852	Bachelor Spinster	Army Officer	33 23	Leeston Karapoi	8 months 19 years	Town Hall, Leeston	00/3672		25 August 1900	Henry Garland
10	25 August 1900	Thomas Neville Digby Elizabeth Withell	Thomas Nevill Digby Elizabeth Mitchell 💍 1900/3874	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	52 34	Ashburton Brookside	32 years 30 years	Residence of Mr. Charles, Ashburton	00/3670		20 August 1900	Rev. W. Beck
11	8 September 1900	George Mathieson Edith Caroline Barnet	George Bengie Mathieson Edith Caroline Barnett 💍 1900/3875	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman Domestic	26 24	Sapleston Leeston	5 years 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Leeston	00/3671		8 September 1900	Rev. W. Beck
12	24 September 1900	William Brown Susannah Ream	William Brown Sarah Janet Rice 💍 1900/3632	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	34 18	Southbridge Southbridge	20 years 4 years	St. James Church, Southbridge	00/3667	Greenwood, father	25 September 1900	Rev. P.J. Coeks
13	25 September 1900	Thomas Martin Mary Agnes Medeigh	Thomas Martin Holley Mary Agnes McVeigh 💍 1900/3870 Thomas Park Mary Jane Wright 💍 1900/2134	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	32 23	Leeston Doyleston	17 years 15 years	Catholic Church, Doyleston	00/3666		27 September 1900	Rev. G. Hallen

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).