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 339

District of Christchurch Quarter ending 30 September 1900 Registrar J. Maikertou

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
371	16 July 1900	John Upritchard Maude Asquith	John Upritchard Maude Asquith 💍 1900/2018	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 30	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 weeks	House of Mrs. Asquith, Carlton Terrace, St. Albans	00/3650	16 July 1900	Rev W. Baumber, Wesleyan
372	16 July 1900	Arthur Richard Cole Kate Izzard	Arthur Richard Cole Kate Begg 💍 1900/2058	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	42 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 1 year	St. Michael's Church	00/3567	16 July 1900	Rev A. Averill, Anglican
373	17 July 1900	Charles Albert Andrews Christina Mary McKay	Charles Albert Andrews Christina Mary McKay 💍 1900/3808	Bachelor Spinster	Creamery Manager Domestic	29 33	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 years	St. Peter's Church, Ferry Road	00/3548	17 July 1900	Rev R. Scott Allan, Presbyterian
374	19 July 1900	William Page Scott Fanny Currie	William Page Scott Fanny Currie 💍 1900/2102	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	36 28	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 28	House of Mrs. Currie, Brougham St, Sydenham	00/3610	19 July 1900	Rev J. Boller, Congregational
375	19 July 1900	Myles Murdoch Willans Blanche Madeline Robinson	Myles Murdock McInnes Blanche Madeline Robinson 💍 1900/2011	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic	25 24	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 7	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	00/3578	19 July 1900	Registrar of Marriages, J. Maikertou
376	19 July 1900	John Jackson Cleaver Alice Cleaver	John Jackson Alice Cleaver 💍 1900/1990	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	34 22	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 22	Registrar's Office, Christchurch	00/3521	19 July 1900	Registrar of Marriages, J. Maikertou
377	21 July 1900	John William Butterfield Mary Ann Davison	John William Butterfield Mary Ann Davison 💍 1900/3817	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 29	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 15	St. Mary's Church, Addington	00/3557	21 July 1900	Rev W. S. 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).