Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 1030

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1884

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
566	14 November 1884	William Mumphy Flora Munro	William Murphy Flora Munro 💍 1884/3042	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 21	Whangarei Whangarei	6 years 5 months	Dwelling of Mr. James Kerr, Papatoitoi	84/2852	14 November 1884	Revd. J. Mackay, Presbyterian
567	14 November 1884	George Jarrett Rosetta Amelia Murray	George Jarrett Rosetta Amelia Murray 💍 1884/3127	Widower Widow	Carpenter	54 45	Auckland Auckland	20 years 5 years	Office of the Regr. of Mrges. Auckland	84/2914	14 November 1884	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
568	14 November 1884	Benjamin John Spear Laura Jane Leon	Benjamin John Spry Spear Laura Jane Seon 💍 1884/1475	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	29 24	North Road Parnell	3 years 3 years	St. Pauls Church, Auckland	84/2982	14 November 1884	Revd. C. M. Nelson, Church England
569	17 November 1884	Albert Hilbert Rotherham Alice May Rowe	Albert Hibbert Rotherham Alice Mary Rowe 💍 1884/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	26 21	Ponsonby Onehunga	5 years 6 years	Office of Regr. of Mrges. Auckland	84/2918	17 November 1884	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
570	17 November 1884	Thomas Beech Elizabeth Dalgleish	Thomas Beech Elizabeth Dalgleish 💍 1884/3128	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 21	Newton Newton	7 months 7 months	Office of Regr. of Mrges. Auckland	84/2917	17 November 1884	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
571	17 November 1884	Timothy Kincely Annie Frances McCabe	Timothy Kenealy Annie Frances McCabe 💍 1884/3053	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 24	Auckland Auckland	2 years 2 years	St. Benedicts Church, Newton	84/2840	17 November 1884	Very Revd. C. Downey, Roman Catholic
572	17 November 1884	John Preston Herbert Hamlin Mary Jane Brown Pearce	John Preston Herbert Hamlin Mary Jane Bowen Pearse 💍 1884/3609	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 26	Pamure Pamure	2 1/2 years 26 years	Church of St. Mathias, Pamure	84/3623	17 November 1884	Revd. H. Gould, Church 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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).