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 319

District of Hawera Quarter ending 30 September 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
69	7 July 1883	James Hick Ellen Kernohan	James Hicks Ellen Kernohan 💍 1883/1889	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Hawera Hawera	8 years 9 months Residence Hawera	Mr R. Hicks	83/1915		7 July 1883	Revd. Jas. Torry
70	8 August 1883	James Matthews Alice Welsh	James Matthews Alice Welsh 💍 1883/1819	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 32	Hawera Hawera	4 years 6 days	English Church Hawera	83/1918		8 August 1883	Revd. W. A. Root
71	9 August 1883	Jose Adams Johanna Mary Ann Inerney	Jesse Adams Johanna Mary McInerney 💍 1883/3345	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 23	Hawera Hawera	3 years 18 months Residence Hawera	Mr C. Condons	83/1556		9 August 1883	Revd. Mr. Grogan
72	15 August 1883	Horace Romana Baker Hannah Maria Fee	Horace Pomana Baker Hannah Maria Fee 💍 1883/1885	Widower Spinster	Cabinet Maker	47 33	Normanby Normanby	3 years 4 years	Registrar's Office	83/1912		15 August 1883	W. J. Chaney Regr.
73	23 August 1883	Alfred Wildon Harrison Isabella Kinnear	Alfred Wildon Harrison Isabella Kinnear 💍 1883/1888	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	25 20	Hawera Hawera	4 months 13 days	Registrar's Office	83/1914	John Rutland, Guardian	15 September 1883	W. J. Chaney Regr.
74	23 August 1883	Henry Edward Gapper Amy Goatham Saywell	Henry Edward Gapper Amy Goatham Saywell 💍 1883/1884	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 21	Manaia Hawera	2 1/2 years 3 weeks	Wesleyan Church	83/1911		23 August 1883	Revd. J. A. Duxford
75	25 August 1883	James Alexander Country Kenny Amelia Ann Alice Cox	James Alexander Courtney Kenny Amelia Ann Alice Cox 💍 1883/1887	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 18	Stratford Stratford	2 months 18 months	Registrar's Office	83/1913		8 September 1883	W. J. Chaney Regr.
76	15 September 1883	William Hicks Agnes McKenzie	William Hicks Agnes McKenzie 💍 1883/1804 William Ferguson Mary McKenzie 💍 1883/3640	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 29	Manaia Hawera	2 years 1 month Residence Hawera	Mr Robert Hicks	83/1916		15 September 1883	Revd. Jas. Torry
77	26 September 1883	Patrick Tarrant Kate Evans	Patrick Tarrant Kate Evans 💍 1883/1815	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 19	Hawera Hawera	4 years 10 years Church Hawera	Roman Catholic	83/1917	Ann Evans, mother	26 September 1883	Revd. Mr. Grogan

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).