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 895

District of Colacotunah Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar J. W. Macpherson

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
546	6 November 1900	William Henry Bailey May Ellen Abraham	William Henry Bailey Mary Ann Abraham 💍 1900/5249	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Tailoress	31 32	Sydenham Sydenham	22 years 14 years	House of Mr. W. H. Bailey, Pound St.	00/5133		6 November 1900	Major H. Gallant, Salvation Army Officer
547	6 November 1900	Charles William Sherwood May Ruth Evelyn Knight	Charles William Sherwood May Ruth Evelyn Knight 💍 1900/4420	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	23 20	Sydenham Sydenham	5 years 20 years	House of Mrs. Knight, Wilton St.	00/5110	Mrs. Knight, Mother	6 November 1900	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
548	6 November 1900	Charles Thomas Smith Annie Jane Nelson	Charles Thomas Smith Annie Joan Nelson 💍 1900/4418	Bachelor Spinster	Bookkeeper	26 21	Christchurch Christchurch	1 week 2 weeks	Wesleyan Parsonage, Harper St.	00/5108		6 November 1900	Rev. H. Bull, Wesleyan
549	6 November 1900	John Saxby Ellis Ethel Alice Benfell	John Saxby Ellis Ethel Alice Benfell 💍 1900/4487	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 23	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 4 years	Bible Christian Church, Lower High St.	00/5022		6 November 1900	Rev. E. Porter, Bible Christian Wesleyan
550	7 November 1900	Harry James Walter Hellier Myra Eva Sherwood	Harry Walter Hellier James Myra Eva Harwood 💍 1900/5649	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Dressmaker	28 23	Christchurch Christchurch	25 years 23 years	St. Paul's Manse, Lichfield St.	00/5774		7 November 1900	Rev. S. Glendie, Presbyterian
551	10 November 1900	James Pringle Wilson Beatrice Claude		Bachelor Spinster	Signalman Domestic	27 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 22 years	St. Michael's Church	00/5065		10 November 1900	Rev. A. Averill, Anglican
552	12 November 1900	William Hartley Edith Smith	William Starkey Edith Smith 💍 1900/4640	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	32 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Michael's Church	00/5064		12 November 1900	Rev. A. Averill, Anglican
553	13 November 1900	Harold Charles Trescott Laura Martin	Harold Charles Truscott Louisa Emily Martin 💍 1900/4426	Bachelor Spinster	Cycle Maker Machinist	23 25	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 20 years	House of Mr. J. Dolman, Madras St., St. Albans	00/5115		13 November 1900	Rev. E. Ward, 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).