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 431

District of Masterton 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
11	11 July 1883	Godfrey Russell Ada Margaret Cleghorn	Godfrey Russell Ada Margaret Cleghorn 💍 1883/1934	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	49 35	Masterton Masterton	12 years 3 years	Church of England Masterton	83/12009		11 July 1883	Revd. W. E. Paige Church of England
12	11 July 1883	George Arthur Ward Harriet Dew	George Arthur Ward Harriet Dew 💍 1883/2099	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 17	Masterton Carterton	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office Carterton	83/12010	Thomas Dew, Father	11 July 1883	John Pickett, Registrar of Marriages
13	16 July 1883	John Mutrie Karen Jorgensen	John Mutrie Karen Jorgensen 💍 1883/1935	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 22	Huripirini Masterton	12 years 5 years	Registrars Office Masterton	83/12010		16 July 1883	J. Bagge, Registrar of Marriages
14	19 July 1883	Arthur William Rule Matilda Houndlow	Arthur William Rule Matilda Hounslow 💍 1883/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	23 21	Masterton Masterton	3 weeks 4 months	House of Mr. Houndlow, Chapel Street	83/12011		19 July 1883	Revd. David Fullton, Presbyterian
15	28 August 1883	Philip Goodier Jane Waugh	Philip Goodin Jane Waugh 💍 1883/1937	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Masterton Matahiwi	3 days 3 months	House of Mr. Thomas Waugh	83/12012	Thomas Waugh, Father	28 August 1883	Revd. David Fullton, Presbyterian
16	3 September 1883	Samuel James Russell Harriet Mary Meredith	Samuel James Burrell Harriet Mary Merridew 💍 1883/1932	Widower Widow	Bricklayer Monthly Nurse	39 33	Masterton Masterton	4 months 8 years	Church of England Masterton	83/12008		3 September 1883	Revd. W. E. Paige, Church of England
17	15 September 1883	Patrick John Curtain Kate Alice Ennis Russell	Patrick John Curtain Leohy Kate Alice Eunis Renoll 💍 1883/2082	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable Milliner	27 20	Masterton Masterton	18 months 10 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	83/12013	Alfred Russell, Father	15 September 1883	Revd. A. Haltwachs, Roman Catholic Priest
18	26 September 1883	William Guy Norman Catherine Baker	William George Norman Catherine Baker 💍 1883/1939	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 20	Masterton Masterton	4 years 8 years	Wesleyan Church Masterton	83/12014	William Baker, Father	26 September 1883	Revd. S. M. Isitt, Wesleyan Minister

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).