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 979

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar W. J. Call

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
408	29 October 1900	Arthur William Barlows Kate Anderson	Arthur William Barlow Kate Anderson 💍 1900/5070	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	31 years 31 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 4 days	In the house of Revd James Guy, Dunedin	00/5383		29 October 1900	Revd James Guy, Methodist Minister
409	29 October 1900	Edwin Richard Briggs Jane Lindsay Maxwell	Edwin Richard Briggs Jane Lindsay Maxwell 💍 1900/5011	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	34 years 22 years	Caversham Dunedin	22 years 13 years	In the house of Samuel Morgan, Park, Roslyn	00/5281		29 October 1900	Revd T. S. Hewitson, Presbyterian Minister
410	29 October 1900	James Tyrrell Osborne Margaret Williamson Osborne	James Tyrrell Margaret Williamson Osborne 💍 1900/5347	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 years 20 years	North East Valley Dunedin	19 years 20 years	In the house of John Osborne, Eden Street, Dunedin	00/5361	John Osborne, father of minor	29 October 1900	Revd D. Borrie, Presbyterian Minister
411	29 October 1900	Robert James Stuart Emily Eliza Welsh	Robert James Stuart Emily Eliza Welsh 💍 1900/5886	Widower Widow	Compositor	38 years 42 years	South Dunedin South Dunedin	1 week 30 years	In St. Patrick's Church, South Dunedin	00/5346		29 October 1900	Revd James Delaney, Roman Catholic Priest
412	30 October 1900	William Richard Pearson Jessie Matilda Robertson	William Richard Pearson Jessie Matilda Robertson 💍 1900/5597	Bachelor Spinster	Share Broker	32 years 23 years	Dunedin Mornington	6 days 6 days	In the house of William McBeath, Mornington	00/5738		30 October 1900	Revd Isaac Jolly, Presbyterian Minister
413	30 October 1900	Francis Peter McGregor Farquharson Ethelwin Sarah Watkins	Francis Peter McGregor Farquhasen Ethelwin Sarah Watkins 💍 1900/5645	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	27 years 27 years	North East Valley North East Valley	27 years 19 years	In the house of Benjamin Watkins, North East Valley	00/5793		30 October 1900	Revd W. F. Sinclair, Wesleyan Minister
414	30 October 1900	Arthur George Munns Rose Webber	Arthur George Munns Rose Webber 💍 1900/5766	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 years 23 years	Dunedin Rothesay	3 days 23 years	In the Congregational Church, Rothesay	00/5401		30 October 1900	Revd George Hergihway, Congregational 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).