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 658

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 31 December 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
419	14 October 1883	Edward Shea Jane Hawke	Edward Shaw Jane Hawke 💍 1883/3086	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Domestic Servant	49 35	Ashley Southbrook	21 years 18 months	Dwelling House of Richd. Marline, Southbrook	83/3040		14 October 1883	Rev. John Stubbs, Wesleyan
420	12 November 1883	John Bolger Mary Gallen	John Bolger Mary Gallen 💍 1883/3087	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	39 24	Mount Thomas Rangiora	2 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Rangiora	83/3041		12 November 1883	Rev. I. M. Newsfeld, R. Catholic
421	20 November 1883	William George Baker Jane Ann Fuller		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	20 19	Southbrook Southbrook	17 years 9 months	Church of England, Rangiora	83/3034	Father Baker, Father Fuller	20 November 1883	Rev. H. W. Dudley, Ch. of England
422	26 November 1883	Henry Jos. Hopkins Eliza Stevens	Henry Joseph Hopkins Eliza Stevens 💍 1883/3085	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Not-any	22 years 24 years	Wood End Wood End	2 years 16 years	Wesleyan Church, Wood End	83/3039		26 November 1883	The Rev. Lucas Hudson, Wesleyan Minister
423	26 November 1883	George Allan Gulliver Elizabeth Hopsell	George Allen Gulliver Elizabeth Hessell 💍 1883/3081	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Teacher	27 years 24 years	Rangiora Rangiora	5 years 24 years	Church of England, Rangiora	83/3035		26 November 1883	Rev. H. W. Dudley, Ch. of Engd.
424	3 December 1883	Thos. McHugh Hannah Power		Bachelor Widow	Labourer Farmer	38 years 40 years	Mandeville, Rangiora Ohoka, Kaiapoi	3 years 12 years	Roman Catholic Church, Kaiapoi	83/3042		3 December 1883	Rev. I. M. Newsfeld, R. C. Church
425	12 December 1883	John Hughey Annie Sutherland	John Hughey Annie Sutherland 💍 1883/3084	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Not-any	25 years 22 years	Rangiora Mt. Grey Downs, Rangiora	6 years 10 years	Presbyterian Church, Leffor Rangiora	83/3038		12 December 1883	Rev. Robb. Loud, Presbyterian
426	17 December 1883	James Pearce Mary Ann Daniel	James Pearce Mary Annie Daniel 💍 1883/3082	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Not-any	26 years 26 years	Southbrook Southbrook	4 years 4 days	Church of England, Rangiora	83/3036		17 December 1883	Rev. H. W. Dudley, Ch. of England

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).