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 497

District of Riverton Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar George Ashby

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
590	7 July 1900	John McKinley Phillips Louisa Batchelor	John McKinley Phillips Louisa Batchelor 💍 1900/2236	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic Duties	23 20	Colac Bay Colac Bay	14 years 7 years	In the House of Mr. George Batchelor, Colac Bay	00/4001	George William Batchelor, Father	7 July 1900	Rev. W. K. Fisher (Presbyterian)
591	21 July 1900	Duncan Hugh Eade Elizabeth Jane Morgan	Duncan Hugh Burnside Eade Elizabeth Jane Morgan 💍 1900/2240	Bachelor Spinster	Sawmill Hand Domestic Duties	29 23	Fairfax Riverton	10 months 3 days	In the Registrar's Office, Riverton	00/4004		21 July 1900	Alexander George Ashby (Registrar)
592	21 July 1900	Evan Matheson Mary Ann Mirrieless	Ewen Matheson Mary Merrilees 💍 1900/2238	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic Duties	32 25	Otautau Orepuki	8 years 25 years	In the House of W. P. Mirrieless, Otautau	00/4002		21 July 1900	Rev. J. Sheehan (Roman Catholic)
593	25 July 1900	Robert Rolch Mary Hagan Walker	Robert Rotch Mary Hagan Walker 💍 1900/5895	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	32 24	Orepuki Orepuki	3 years 24 years	In the Office of the Registrar, Riverton	00/4005		25 July 1900	Alexander George Ashby (Registrar)
594	3 August 1900	George Francis Burgess Ada Laura Town	George Francis Burgess Ada Laurina Town 💍 1900/2241	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Domestic Duties	23 25	Orepuki Orepuki	1 year 6 months	In the Office of the Registrar, Riverton	00/4006		3 August 1900	John Hawtin Wheeler (Deputy Registrar)
595	7 August 1900	William Herrick Emily Bella Johnston	William Herrick Emily Bella Johnstone 💍 1900/4066	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Duties	28 18	Orepuki Orepuki	5 years 18 years	At the Residence of Thomas Johnston, Orepuki	00/3980	Thomas Johnston, Father	7 August 1900	Rev. G. E. Roby (Presbyterian)
596	9 August 1900	William Arthur Jane McMullan	William Arthur Jane Wilson McQuillan 💍 1900/2226	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Duties	25 22	Orepuki Orepuki	8 years 12 years	In the House of Henry McMullan, Orepuki	00/3981		9 August 1900	Rev. G. E. Roby (Presbyterian)

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).