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 896

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

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
554	13 November 1900	George Brain Norah E. Conner		Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	38 37	Waian Christchurch	5 years 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Hawarden	00/5171	13 November 1900	Rev. F. W. Price, Romanist
555	13 November 1900	Sydney Arthur Orchards Gertrude Howard	Sydney Arthur Orchard Gertrude Howard 💍 1900/5939	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	24 23	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 17 years	House of Mr. W. Howard, Hanmer Rd., Richmond	00/5013	13 November 1900	Rev. J. Orchards, Wesleyan
556	13 November 1900	John Thomas Dixon Margaret Palmer	John Thomas Dixon Margaret Palmer 💍 1900/4648	Widower Spinster	Butcher	37 21	Christchurch Christchurch	37 years 20 years	House of Mr. J. Palmer, Papanui	00/5049	13 November 1900	Rev. J. M. Simpson, Presbyterian
557	14 November 1900	George Searle Harriet Vincent	George Searle Harriet Vincent 💍 1900/5295	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper	54 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 weeks 28 years	Pro Cathedral, Barbados St., Christchurch	00/5178	14 November 1900	Rev. H. W. Younch, Romanist
558	14 November 1900	Thomas John Brunsdon Amelia Parry	Thomas John Brunsdon Amelia Parry 💍 1900/4504	Widower Spinster	Baker Domestic	37 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 months 1 year	House of David Moore, Woolston	00/5016	14 November 1900	Rev. J. Burton, Wesleyan
559	14 November 1900	Walter Prime Curnie Agnes Hodgson	Walter Prime Annie Hodgson 💍 1900/4502	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	22 22	Christchurch Christchurch	21 years 3 months	House of Mr. J. Hopping, Manuel Rd., Woolston	00/5014	14 November 1900	Rev. R. Taylor, Wesleyan
560	17 November 1900	Arthur Owen Hopkins Annie Hopkins	Arthur Allen Annie Hopkins 💍 1900/4503	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Christchurch Christchurch	23 years 21 years	House of Mr. H. Hopkins, Woolston	00/5015	17 November 1900	Rev. R. Taylor, Wesleyan
561	19 November 1900	Alfred Billett Mary Jane Keefe	Alfred Billett Mansfield Mary Jane Keefe 💍 1900/5102	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Tailoress	36 32	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 20 years	St. Mary's Church, Addington	00/5080	19 November 1900	Rev. W. J. Bean, Anglican

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).