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 261

District of Wellington Quarter ending 30 September 1900

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
365	11 July 1900	Gregory Edward Barrett Alice Greenwood	Gregory Edward Barrett Alice Greenwood 💍 1900/1857	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	22 20	Wellington Wellington	13 years 20 years	St Mary's of the Angels Church, Wellington	00/3305	Mary Ann Greenwood, Mother	12 July 1900	Reverend Thos O'Shea
366	12 July 1900	Thomas Hickin Elizabeth Hookley	Thomas Wilkin Elizabeth Hockley 💍 1900/5375 Thomas Harvey Elizabeth Barclay 💍 1900/5793 Thomas Riley Elizabeth Maher 💍 1900/199	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	29 25	Wellington Wellington	18 months 25 years	St Andrew's Church, Wellington	00/5625	Absolutely granted April 1900	12 July 1900	Reverend C. S. Lgg
367	13 July 1900	James Hacker Margaret Woodford McWhirter		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	18 23	Petone Petone	17 years 1 year	Residence of Mr Geo. McWhirter, Jackson Street, Petone	00/3363	George McWhirter, Father	14 July 1900	Reverend Alexr Thomson
368	14 July 1900	Sydney Toney Beatrice Evelina Maude Smith	Sydney Tovey Beatrice Evaline Macer Smith 💍 1900/4816	Bachelor Widow	Driver	23 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 20 years	St Mary's Church Room, Wellington	00/4829		14 July 1900	Reverend W. J. Lewis
369	14 July 1900	Charles John Burneth Jennie Shearer	Charles John Burnett Jennie Shearer 💍 1900/3765	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	28 23	Wellington Wellington	18 years 23 years	Baptist Church, Vivian Street, Wellington	00/3377		14 July 1900	Reverend Chas Dallaston
370	16 July 1900	Robert John Thompson Caroline Kohn	Robert John Thompson Caroline Kohn 💍 1900/1852	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Milliner	31 33	Wellington Wellington	10 years 2 months	Residence of Mr Gerald Kohn, Main Street, Wellington	00/3292		16 July 1900	Reverend J. K. Elliott
371	17 July 1900	Leslie Martin Monkton Brenda Marie Wilson	Leslie Martin Monckton Brenda Marie Wilson 💍 1900/5899	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 26	Mangahao Wellington	5 years 7 days	St Peter's Church, Wellington	00/3335		17 July 1900	Reverend W. C. Waters

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).