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 909

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar J. M. Anderson

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
643	27 December 1900	Leonard Walter Withell Realing Minnie Love	Leonard Walter Withell Beatrice Minnie Love 💍 1900/5116	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Bootmaker	26 15	Christchurch Christchurch	26 years 15 years	St. Michaels Church	00/5070	Ellen Love, Mother	27 December 1900	Rev. A. W. Coorile, Anglican
644	27 December 1900	John Campbell Stinson Jessie Maud Stinson	John Campbell Jessie Maud Stinson 💍 1900/5111	Bachelor Spinster	Theosophist	22 19	Christchurch Christchurch	22 years 19 years	House of Mr. Q. R. Barder, Rolleston	00/5089	Thomas Archy Barder, Legal Guardian	27 December 1900	Rev. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
645	27 December 1900	Alfred Benjamin Hobbs Catherine McKeogh	Alfred Benjamin Hobbs Catherine McHugh 💍 1900/4499	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	21 21	St. Albans St. Albans	21 years 1 year	Registrar's Office	00/5010		27 December 1900	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Anderson
646	27 December 1900	Robert James Wallace Sarah Matilda Wellale	Robert James Dunford Sarah Matilda Wallace 💍 1900/5651	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman Cook	29 22	St. Martins Halswell	8 years 3 months	House of Mr. Wallace, Halswell	00/5776		27 December 1900	Rev. Dr. Elmslie, Presbyterian
647	27 December 1900	James Bird Churchward Annie Louisa Churchward	James Bird Annie Louisa Churchward 💍 1901/1014	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman Domestic	22 23	Riccarton Riccarton	2 years 8 months	House of Mr. Churchward, Riccarton	01/951		27 December 1900	Rev. A. North, Baptist
648	28 December 1900	Roderick Muschamp Emily Constance Brade	Roderick Muschamp Emily Constance Drake 💍 1901/471	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Seamstress	25 26	Christchurch St. Albans	25 years 3 years	Trinity Church, Burnside	01/898		28 December 1900	Rev. C. R. Pollock, Anglican
649	28 December 1900	William Pateman Burns Florence Fanny Burns	William Pateman Florence Fanny Burn 💍 1900/4500	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 20	Belfast Papanui	15 years 12 years	Registrar's Office	00/5011	Thomas Burns, Father	28 December 1900	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Anderson
650	28 December 1900	Ronald Arthur Appleyard Annie Appleyard	Ronald Arthur Carpenter Annie Applegard 💍 1900/5652	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic	24 25	Richmond Richmond	21 years 25 years	St. Pauls Church	00/5777		28 December 1900	Rev. Dr. Elmslie, Presbyterian

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).