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 901

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar J. J. Wauderson

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
584	28 November 1900	William Fisher Kate O'Brien	William Fisher Kate O'Brien 💍 1900/5265 William John Gibbons Kate O'Brien 💍 1901/458	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 28	Christchurch Christchurch	4 days 7 years	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Manchester St. Chch	00/5125		28 November 1900	Rev. D. Gallois, Roman Catholic
585	28 November 1900	Herbert Ashon Ellen MacCrimmon	Herbert Aston Ellen Hutchinson 💍 1900/5093	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 31	Sydenham Sydenham	5 weeks 5 weeks	St. Andrew's Church, Maura	00/5146		28 November 1900	Rev. S. H. Mackenzie, Presbyterian
586	30 November 1900	Hugh Downes Agatha Josephine Wattie Jonassen	Hugh Downes Agatha Josephine Wilhemina Jonassen 💍 1900/4642	Bachelor Spinster	Caretaker Domestic	40 19	Christchurch Christchurch	7 days 1 year	St. John's Church, Latimer Sq.	00/5043	Peter Jonassen, Father	30 November 1900	Rev. M. Watson, Anglican
587	3 December 1900	George Gordon Maria Welsh	George Gordon Maria Welsh 💍 1900/4200	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	30 29	Christchurch Christchurch	1 year 2 years	Registrar's Office, Chch	00/4997		3 December 1900	J. J. Wauderson, Registrar of Marriages
588	3 December 1900	Henry Pusch Banks Maria Maddison	Enoch Henry Banks Maria Maddison 💍 1900/5103	Widower Widow	Merchant Domestic	64 60	Christchurch Christchurch	43 years 50 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	00/5081		3 December 1900	Rev. W. S. Brown, Anglican
589	3 December 1900	John Edwin Simpson Annie Baxter	John Edwin Empson Annie Baxter 💍 1900/4201	Widower Spinster	Engineer Housekeeper	65 36	Christchurch Christchurch	14 years 30 years	Registrar's Office, Chch	00/4998		3 December 1900	J. J. Wauderson, Registrar of Marriages
590	4 December 1900	Alexander Loughlin Jeffery Alice Amy Pepper	Alexander Laughlen Jeffery Alice Amy Pepper 💍 1900/4427	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	28 20	Christchurch Woolston	1 month 20 years	House of Mr. Wm. Pepper, Woolston	00/5116	William Pepper, Father	4 December 1900	Rev. C. R. Ward, Methodist
591	4 December 1900	William Colston Dixon Rose Mary O'Cuthbertson	William Colston Dixon Rose Mary D'Authrian 💍 1900/5243	Bachelor Spinster	Factory Manager	30 22	Christchurch Christchurch	1 month 3 days	Baptist Church, Oxford Terrace, Chch	00/5127		4 December 1900	Rev. J. J. Bolke, Baptist

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).