Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 317

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 June 1883

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
60	2 April 1883	Marcus John Reynolds Mary Agnes Hampton	Marcus John McReynolds Mary Agnes Noughton 💍 1883/1271	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper &c	32 22	Hawera Hawera	2 days 2 years	Roman Catholic Church Hawera	83/1003		4 April 1883	Rev. M. Grogan
61	9 April 1883	John Crockett Eliza Ovenden	John Crockett Eliza Ovenden 💍 1883/1272	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Hawera Hawera	3 days 3 days	Railway Hotel Hawera	83/1004		9 April 1883	Rev. M. S. Breach
62	16 April 1883	George Irvine Falkner Olivia Anne McCutcheon	George Irvine Falkner Olivia Anne McCutchan 💍 1883/1273	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 22	Motueka Hawera	3 months 5 years	Residence Hawera	83/1005		16 April 1883	Rev. Jas. Torry
63	9 May 1883	John Venyos Scott Emma Southernt Goodson	John Wemyes Scott Emma Southcombe Goodson 💍 1883/1269	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 26	Ohakamara Ohakamara	2 years 2 years	English Church	83/1007		9 May 1883	Rev. W. H. Root
64	14 May 1883	Frank Guillossan Sarah Ann Daines	Frank Guillosson Sarah Ann Daines 💍 1883/1275	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	37 17	Ngaira Ngaira	2 years 5 months	Registrar Office	83/1007	Hayfield, Father	14 May 1883	W. J. Chaney
65	25 May 1883	John Taylor Lavinia Brown	John Taylor Lavinia Brown 💍 1883/1277	Widower Widow	Farmer	55 37	Ngaira Hawera Waitara	2 years 1 day	Registrar Office	83/1008		25 May 1883	W. J. Chaney
66	31 May 1883	George Girdler Sparke Charlotte Jane Wortley	George Girdler Sparke Charlotte Jane Wortley 💍 1883/1270	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	26 17	Hawera Hawera	2 days 4 days	Church of England	83/1002	William Wortley, Father	2 June 1883	Rev. W. H. Root
67	4 June 1883	William Nichol Mary Frances Alexander Holla	William Nichol Mary Warren Alexander Holland 💍 1883/1274	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 18	Hawera Hawera	3 years 9 years	Mr. W. Morris	83/1006	Quentin Morris, Guardian	4 June 1883	Rev. Jas. Torry
68	11 June 1883	Harvey Thomson Rachel Hall	Harvey Thomson Rachel Hall 💍 1883/1113	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 23	Normanby Normanby	2 years 15 months	Mr. Jno. Halls	83/1009		11 June 1883	Rev. J. a. Luxford

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).