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 884

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar J. Mard

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
1202	23 November 1900	William Alexander Adams Helen McKee	William Alexander Adams Helen McKee 💍 1900/5149	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 21	Fairton Ashburton	18 months 15 years	Presbyterian Church at Ashburton	00/4970		23 November 1900	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis
1203	24 November 1900	Alexander McKenzie Faith Agnes Tarbotton	Alexander McKenzie Faith Agnes Tarbotton 💍 1900/5151	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 20	Hinds Ealing	20 years 7 years	Private Residence of Robert Tarbotton	00/4972	Robert Tarbotton, Father	27 November 1900	Revd. John B. Jory
1204	15 December 1900	Edgar Joseph King Frances Annie Jonson	Edgar Joseph King Frances Annie Jonson 💍 1900/5153	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Weaver	21 20	Hampstead Hampstead	2 years 17 years	Private Dwelling of H. Jonson at Hampstead	00/4974	Henry Jonson, Father	15 December 1900	Major Lewis Lipsett
1205	15 December 1900	David Ferney Annie Stone	David Fechney Annie Stone 💍 1900/5383	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 19	Ashburton Forks Netherfield	9 years 2 years	Private Dwelling of Thomas Stone at Netherfield	00/5633	Thomas Stone, Father	15 December 1900	Revd. S. N. Blakiston
1206	15 December 1900	William Russell Bertis Henrietta Pearl Robinson	William Rusell Curtis Henrietta Sarah Robinson 💍 1900/5152	Bachelor Spinster	Saw Miller	26 24	Ashburton Ashburton	14 days 24 years	Primitive Methodist Church at Ashburton	00/4973		15 December 1900	Revd. Robert Raines
1207	17 December 1900	Oscar Ernest Duncan Edith Potter	Oscar Ernest Duncan Emily Edith Potter 💍 1900/5482	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 20	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 20 years	Wesleyan Church, Ashburton	00/5686	Stephen Potter, Father	17 December 1900	Revd. Thomas Fee
1208	19 December 1900	Robert Henry Alexander Jeff Eliza Bird	Robert Henry Alexander Jeff Eliza Curd 💍 1900/5839	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 31	Tinwald Allenton	3 days 15 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	00/4977		19 December 1900	Revd. R. A. Moodthrope
1209	19 December 1900	John Henry Taylor Sarah Isabella Whiteside	John Henry Taylor Sarah Isabella Whiteside 💍 1900/5483	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Ashburton Ashburton	20 years 18 years	Private Dwelling of Mrs. Whiteside at Alford Forest Road	00/5687		19 December 1900	Revd. Thomas Fee
1210	24 December 1900	William McCausland Hannah Keeley	William McLauchlan Hannah Keeley 💍 1900/5150	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	35 28	Benview, Wakanui Irwellton	14 years 2 years	Presbyterian Church, Ashburton	00/4971		24 December 1900	Revd. Geo. B. Inglis

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).