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 1002

District of East Taieri Quarter ending 31 December 1890 Registrar G. Barncross

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
27	20 October 1890	Thomas Bringans Alexina Strachan	Thomas Bringans Alexina Strachan 💍 1900/5193	Bachelor Spinster	Dredge hand	26 years 26 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	3 days 15 years	Baptist Chapel, Mosgiel	00/5413		20 October 1890	Rev. F. H. Boreham
28	19 October 1890	James Alexander Thomson Catherine Laird	James Alexander Thomson Catherine Laird 💍 1900/5194 James Branksome Hall Catherine Laird 💍 1900/5031	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	25 years 21 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	4 days 10 years	House of Mr John Laird, Mosgiel	00/5414		19 October 1890	Rev. F. H. Boreham
29	6 November 1890	James Callaghan Maria Harris	James Callaghan Maria Harris 💍 1900/5196	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 years 22 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	5 days 22 years	House of Mr Adam Harris, Saddle Hill	00/5416		6 November 1890	Rev. A. Hopper
30	8 November 1890	Frederick Ernest Stewart Emma Jane Dryden Fowler	Frederick Earnest Terowie Stewart Florence Jane Dryden Fowler 💍 1900/5195	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 years 18 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	8 months 18 years	House of Mr James Fowler, Mosgiel	00/5415	James Fowler, Father	12 November 1890	Rev. F. H. Boreham
31	10 December 1890	Walter Blackie Ann Hamilton	Walter Blackie Ann Hamilton 💍 1900/5197	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 years 27 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	26 years 27 years	House of Adam Hamilton, East Taieri	00/5417		10 December 1890	Rev. J. F. Hall
32	14 December 1890	John Johnson Isabella Olive		Bachelor Spinster	Agent	28 years 36 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	8 years 15 years	House of Adam Olive, Mosgiel	00/5812		14 December 1890	Rev. J. F. Hall
33	15 December 1890	David Wilson Julia E. Bangal	David Wilson Julia Bangat 💍 1900/5656	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 years 18 years	Otakia Otakia	12 years 3 months	House of John Wills, Otakia	00/5857	Paul Bangal, Father	17 December 1890	Rev. R. Fairmaid
34	17 December 1890	James Brown Catherine Victoria Mabel Smith	John Brown Catherine Victoria Mabel Smith 💍 1900/5594	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 years 17 years	Henley Henley	20 years 17 years	Office of Registrar, Mosgiel	00/5795	James Smith, Father	18 December 1890	Registrar, Mosgiel
35	19 December 1890	Herbert Guest Mary Wright	Herbert Guest Mary Wright 💍 1900/5588 Richard Stevens Mary Wright 💍 1900/68	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	28 years 29 years	Mosgiel Mosgiel	20 years 17 years	House of James Alexander, East Taieri	00/5720		19 December 1890	Rev. J. Paulin

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).