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 581

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar George John Alexander Johnston

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
1155	1 October 1900	Harry Hobart Lockie Emma Caroline Mainwaring	Harry Hobart Lockie Emma Caroline Eugenie Mainwaring 💍 1900/5460	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	27 years 26 years	Waipawa, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	12 years 8 years	Holy Trinity Church	00/5748		1 October 1900	Edward Jennings, Church of England
1156	1 October 1900	John Henry Ormond Mabel Coe	John Henry Ormond Mabel Cox 💍 1900/5459	Bachelor Spinster	Coachbuilder	31 years 19 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	14 years 19 years	Holy Trinity Church	00/5747		1 October 1900	Edward Jennings, Church of England
1157	8 October 1900	William Charles Bosley Annie Charlotte Griffin	William Charles Besley Annie Charlotte Griffin 💍 1900/2251	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Bookkeeper	24 years 27 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	9 months 9 months	Office Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne	00/4276		8 October 1900	George J. Johnston, Registrar, Gisborne
1158	11 October 1900	Robert Rule Euphemia Horner	Robert Rule Euphemia Horne 💍 1900/4535	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Housekeeper	22 years 19 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	1 month 3 days	Residence of J. G. Paterson	00/4266	John Paterson, father	11 October 1900	J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
1159	15 October 1900	Arthur Spencer Howard Alice Lily Evans	Arthur Spencer Howard Alice Ely Evans 💍 1900/4536	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 27 years	Christchurch Gisborne, Poverty Bay	25 years 1 day (about 10 years)	Residence of J. S. Evans (Christchurch)	00/4267		15 October 1900	James Gillice Paterson, Presbyterian
1160	29 October 1900	John Miller Jackson Florence Mary Sampey	John Miller Jackson Florence Mary Sampey 💍 1900/4542	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	27 years 20 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	5 years All her life, Gladstone Road, Gisborne	Residence of Mr. Sampey	00/4072		29 October 1900	John Elliot Fox, Church of England
1161	31 October 1900	Joseph Pardoe Annie Bougen	Joseph Pardoe Annie Bougen 💍 1900/5461	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	25 years 19 years	Makauri, Poverty Bay Makauri, Poverty Bay	14 years All her life, Gisborne	Holy Trinity Church	00/5749		31 October 1900	Anthony Stuart Webb, Church of England
1162	5 November 1900	James Golding Isabella Louisa Reed	James Golding Isabella Louisa Reed 💍 1900/4543	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	25 years 22 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	3 years All her life, Derby Street, Gisborne	Residence of Mr. Reed	00/4273		5 November 1900	Frederick Bignell Oldham, Wesleyan
1163	16 November 1900	John William Wilson Emma McNeil	John William Wilson Emma McNeil 💍 1900/4541	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 years 24 years	Waiau, Tolaga Bay, Cook County Tolaga Bay, Cook County	9 years 7 years	Residence of Robert McNeil	00/4271		16 November 1900	Herbert William Williams, Church of England
1164	19 November 1900	John Bulch Von Pein Emily Williams	John Balck von Perin Emily Williams 💍 1900/4537	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman Domestic Servant	25 years 24 years	Whataupoko, Poverty Bay Whataupoko, Poverty Bay	20 years 20 years	Residence of John Von Pein	00/4268		19 November 1900	James Gillice Paterson, 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).