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 1058

District of Riverton Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar Alexander George Ashby

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
599	22 October 1900	Walter Hollands Christina Gregory	Walter Hollands Christina Gregory 💍 1900/5398	Bachelor Spinster	Lawmiller Domestic	21	Fairfax Riverton	4 months	At Office of Registrar of Marriages, Riverton	00/5524	22 October 1900	Registrar of Marriages, Riverton
600	5 November 1900	Thomas Barty Bertha Elizabeth Crows	Thomas Bemner McCarthy Bertha Elizabeth Evans 💍 1900/5900	Widower Spinster	Butcher Domestic Duties	46 years 28 years	Riverton Riverton	20 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	00/5525	5 November 1900	Registrar, Riverton
601	12 November 1900	Frederick John Young Bertha Eleanor Small	Fredrick John Young Esther Eleanor Small 💍 1900/5406	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic Duties	28 22	How of Riverton Te Ina	3 days 5 years	Presbyterian Church, Orepuke District	00/5532	12 November 1900	Rev. Davidson
602	15 November 1900	Alexander Hamilton Janet Dalziel	Alexander Hamilton Janet Stuart Dalziel 💍 1900/5399	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Domestic duties	30 29	Riverton Riverton	3 days 20 years	Presbyterian Church	00/5526	15 November 1900	Rev. McCully
603	12 December 1900	Alfred Harkness Dryden Christina Jane Eliott	Alfred Harkness Dryden Christina Jane Elliott 💍 1900/5404	Bachelor Spinster	Saw-Miller Domestic duties	26 22	Colac Bay Colac Bay	3 years	At the Residence of John Eliott, Colac Bay	00/5531	12 December 1900	Rev. Wm. Fisher
604	17 December 1900	Walter John Riddell Jessie Phillip	Walter John Riddell Janet Phillips 💍 1900/5402	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Duties	22 21	Riverton Colac	4 days 3 months	Presbyterian Church, Colac	00/5529	17 December 1900	Rev. Wm. Fisher
605	21 December 1900	Alexander Bailey Mary Jane Carltron Baxter	Alexander Bailey May Jane Cartsburn Baxter 💍 1900/5401	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Duties	33 26	Riverton Riverton	4 days 26 years	Wesleyan Church	00/5528	21 December 1900	Rev. Reader

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).