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 893

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar J. M. Anderson

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
531	29 October 1900	Herbert Free Augusta Parmenter	Herbert Free Augusta Earnestina Kars 💍 1900/4629	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 10 months	St. German Church, Christchurch	00/5054		29 October 1900	Rev. J. A. Mayer, Anglican
532	30 October 1900	Clement Francis Cracroft Wilson Nellie Olive Harley	Clement Francis Cracroff Wilson Nellie Olive Harley 💍 1900/4638	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 25	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 25 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	00/5062		30 October 1900	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican
533	30 October 1900	Herbert Oscar Hudson Amelia Maud Hardinge	Herbert Ernest Oscar Hudson Amelia Maria Hardinge 💍 1900/4639	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Machinist	29 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 years	St. Michael's Church, Christchurch	00/5063		30 October 1900	Rev. A. W. Averill, Anglican
534	31 October 1900	Robert Harry Le Comte Lydia Cheyne Winter	Robert Henry Le Comte Lydia Chegwin 💍 1900/4417	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Brushmaker	20 20	Sydenham Sydenham	1 year 13 months	Methodist Church, Sydenham	00/5107	H. M. Le Comte, father of groom	31 October 1900	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
535	31 October 1900	Malcolm McConnell Nellie May Wood	Malcolm McCormick Nellie Maude Voyce 💍 1900/5117	Bachelor Spinster	Gilder	36 27	Christchurch Christchurch	36 years 14 months	Congregational Church, Ferry Road, Linwood	00/5071		31 October 1900	Rev. J. Sarginson, Congregationalist
536	2 November 1900	John Isbister Florence Fanny Primrose		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	28 21	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 2 months	St. Paul's Church, Cashel Street, Christchurch	00/5771		2 November 1900	Rev. F. H. Blennerhassett, Presbyterian
537	3 November 1900	Charles Lesbee Low Bertha Louise Scott	Charles Asbee Low Bertha Louisa Scott 💍 1900/5119	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic	22 21	Christchurch Christchurch	20 years 21 months	All Saints Church, Burwood	00/5074		3 November 1900	Rev. F. M. Inwood, Anglican
538	3 November 1900	Frederick Charles Wilson Charlotte Georgina Hand	Frederick Charles Wilson Charlotte Georgina Hand 💍 1900/4483	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	21 21	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 21 months	Methodist Church, Sydenham	00/5078		3 November 1900	Rev. W. Thomas, Methodist

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).