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 393

District of Timaru Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar Alexander Montgomery

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
56	4 August 1900	John Lumley Manning Mary Holmes	John Lumley Manning Mary Holmes 💍 1900/5720	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 years 22 years	Timaru Normanby	12 years 22 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Holmes, Normanby	00/3748		4 August 1900	Rev. L. G. Brady, Church of England Clergyman
57	11 August 1900	Cornelius Allen Honora Wagner	Cornelius Allen Nora Wagner 💍 1900/5707	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic Servant	24 years 23 years	Timaru Timaru	21 years 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Timaru	00/3756		11 August 1900	Rev. J. Lubman, Roman Catholic Priest
58	11 August 1900	William Goodman Louisa Nisbett	William Gordman Louisa Nesbitt 💍 1900/4961 William Satman Louisa Ansell 💍 1900/1155 William Woods Louisa Blank 💍 1900/3106	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	35 years 18 years	Timaru Timaru	35 years 18 years	English Church, Timaru	00/5207	Paulina Nisbett, mother	11 August 1900	Ven. Archdeacon W. H. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
59	16 August 1900	Alexander Leslie Annie Lurline Clarkson	Alexander Leslie Annie Lurline Clarkson 💍 1900/5719	Bachelor Spinster	Tweed Worker	21 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	21 years 21 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. H. C. Clarkson, Grey Road, Timaru	00/3745		16 August 1900	Rev. W. C. Woodward, Primitive Methodist Minister
60	18 August 1900	George Barclay Shaw Sara Isabella Mahan	George Barclay Shaw Sarah Isabella Mahan 💍 1900/5705	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer School Mistress	24 years 31 years	Arowhenua Arowhenua	10 months 2 years	Dwellinghouse of David Shaw, Arowhenua	00/3754		18 August 1900	Rev. W. M. Gillies, Presbyterian Minister
61	29 August 1900	Thomas Ward Florence Josephine Moffatt	Thomas Ward Florence Josephine Moffatt 💍 1900/5701	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Owner	36 years 23 years	Fairview Beaconsfield	2 years 4 years	English Church, Beaconsfield	00/3749		29 August 1900	Rev. L. G. Brady, Church of England Clergyman
62	1 September 1900	Peter Stewart Maud Elizabeth Tooth	Peter Stewart Maud Elizabeth Tooth 💍 1900/5851	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 years 21 years	Timaru Timaru	3 years 14 years	Dwellinghouse of B. R. Tooth, Charles St., Timaru	00/3746		1 September 1900	Rev. W. C. Woodward, Primitive Methodist Minister
63	14 September 1900	Duncan Alexander Campbell Mary McCombe	Duncan Alexander Campbell Mary McCombe 💍 1900/5714	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housekeeper	29 years 28 years	Timaru Timaru	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Timaru	00/3740		14 September 1900	Alexander Montgomery, Registrar
64	14 September 1900	Walter Herbert Boys Mary Auld	Walter Herbert Boys Mary Auld 💍 1900/4963	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Housekeeper	23 years 23 years	Timaru Timaru	23 years 23 years	St. Mary's English Church, Timaru	00/5209		14 September 1900	Ven. Archdeacon H. W. Harper, Church of England Clergyman
65	22 September 1900	John Thomas Bourne Emma Harriet Robinson	John Thomas Bourne Emma Harriett Robinson 💍 1900/5704	Bachelor Widow	Hotelkeeper Farmer	42 years 23 years	Pareora Pareora	4 days 6 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Timaru	00/3753		22 September 1900	Rev. J. Newman Buttle, Wesleyan Minister

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).