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 976

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar William Joseph Hall

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
387	9 October 1900	Robert Balfour McMahon Mary Elizabeth McMahon	Robert Balfour Wishart Mary Elizabeth McMahon 💍 1900/5042	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	46 years 44 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 22 years	In St. Joseph's Cathedral	00/5350	9 October 1900	Revd. P. Murphy, Roman Catholic Priest
388	9 October 1900	William Charles Esquilant Jemima Forrest Fleming	William Charles Esquilant Jemima Forrest Fleming 💍 1900/5051	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	33 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	30 years 23 years	In the house of Robert Fleming, Hope Street	00/5387	9 October 1900	Revd. J. W. Spence, Presbyterian Minister
389	12 October 1900	William Watson Agnes Kane	William Watson Agnes Kane 💍 1900/5635	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Worker	28 years 26 years	Green Island Green Island	22 years 23 years	In the house of Daniel Kane	00/5784	12 October 1900	Revd. Dr. Pratt, Presbyterian Minister
390	13 October 1900	Matthew Muir Emily Scott	Matthew Muir Emily Scott 💍 1900/5428	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	28 years 24 years	Caversham Caversham	3 days 2 years	In the Presbyterian Church	00/5638	13 October 1900	Revd. J. Dutton, Presbyterian Minister
391	15 October 1900	Herbert Mordecai May Jacobs	Herbert Mordaut May Jacobs 💍 1900/5216	Bachelor Spinster	Insurance Agent	36 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	16 months 26 years	In the Jewish Synagogue	00/5300	15 October 1900	Revd. T. Chodowski, Jewish Rabbi
392	15 October 1900	William Evans Annie Isabella Ravenwood	William Evans Annie Isabella Ravenwood 💍 1900/4508	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 8 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	00/5254	15 October 1900	W. J. Hall, Registrar of Marriages
393	15 October 1900	Hugh Ross Flora Margaret McDonald	Hugh Ross Jr Flora Margaret McDonald 💍 1900/5053	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	29 years 21 years	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	29 years 21 years	In the house of James McDonald	00/5389	15 October 1900	Revd. A. Cameron, Presbyterian Minister

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).