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 582

District of Gisborne Quarter ending 31 December 1900 Registrar George John Alexander Johnston

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
1165	21 November 1900	George Hamilton Morice Elizabeth Theodora Jeffreys	George Hamilton Morice Elizabeth Theodora Jeffreys 💍 1900/4538	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Governess	24 years 21 years	Patutahi, Poverty Bay Te Aroha, Poverty Bay	15 years 2 years	Residence of R. Campbell, Thomson St, Whataupoko	00/4269	21 November 1900	James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian
1166	28 November 1900	Edward Goldsmith Minnie Williams	Edward Goldsmith Minnie Williams 💍 1900/2262	Bachelor Spinster	Station hand	22 years 21 years	Te Karaka, Poverty Bay Te Wharau, Poverty Bay	all his life all her life	Registrar's Office, Gisborne	00/4277	28 November 1900	Registrar of Marriages, Gisborne
1167	22 December 1900	Charles Thomas Ellen Higgs	Charles Thomas Ellen Higgs 💍 1900/4545	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Barmaid	32 years 25 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	7 years 7 years	Residence of J. T. Power, Bushmere, Poverty Bay	00/4275	22 December 1900	Frederick Bignell Oldham, Wesleyan
1168	22 December 1900	Ernest Hugh Steggall Edith Louisa Martin	Ernest Hugh Steggall Edith Louisa Martin 💍 1900/4544	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Dressmaker	22 years 21 years	Whataupoko, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	all his life all her life	Residence of J. T. Power, Carnarvon St, Gisborne	00/4274	22 December 1900	Frederick Bignell Oldham, Wesleyan
1169	28 December 1900	Albert John Haycock Kate Newman	Albert John Haycock Kate Newman 💍 1900/4540	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	22 years 21 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	3 months 2 months	St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Gisborne	00/4270	28 December 1900	James Gillies Paterson, Presbyterian
1170	28 December 1900	Frederick Thomas Steele Ann Somervell Colley	Frederick Thomas Steele Ann Somerwell Colley 💍 1901/2680	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Shop Assistant	30 years 27 years	Gisborne, Poverty Bay Gisborne, Poverty Bay	6 days 20 years	Residence of R. Barrow, Waerengaahika, Poverty Bay	01/3017	28 December 1900	James Gillies Paterson, 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).