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 1026

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
594	26 November 1884	Christopher Bowman Rebecca Jane Kingston	Henry Christopher Bowman Rebecca Jane Kingstone 💍 1884/3092	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 21	Newton Mt Eden	8 years 21 years	St Andrews Church	84/2828		26 November 1884	Revd J. K. Davis, Church England
595	26 November 1884	Thomas Perry Ann Farrall	Thomas Perry Anne Farrall 💍 1884/1732	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	38 28	Harding Street Auckland	2 years 4 years	Cathedral	84/3683		26 November 1884	Revd W. S. Macdonald, Roman Catholic
596	26 November 1884	William Wilson Margaret Graham Brown	William Nelson Margaret Graham Brown 💍 1884/743	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 20	Mt Eden Ponsonby	2 years 15 years	Dwelling of Mr. Thos. Brown, Hobson Street	84/3154	James Brown, Father	26 November 1884	Revd G. Aldridge, Church of Christ
597	27 November 1884	Michael Lenihan Mary Ryan	Michael Lenehan Mary Ryan 💍 1884/3054 Alexander Hamilton Mary Ryan 💍 1884/2180	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	23 21	Arch Hill Auckland	23 years 21 years	St Benedicts Church	84/2841		27 November 1884	Very Revd C. Downey, Roman Catholic
598	29 November 1884	Robert Little Eliza Patterson	Robert Little Lizzie Patterson 💍 1884/3034	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 21	Auckland Auckland	9 years 9 years	Dwelling of Revd W. S. Potter, Wakefield St	84/2836		29 November 1884	Revd W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist
599	1 December 1884	John Thomas Carham Alice Maud Gyde	John Thomas Canham Alice Maud Gyde 💍 1884/3136	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	21 19	Auckland Auckland	21 years 6 years	Office of the Regr of Mrges Auckland	84/2924	George Gyde, Father	1 December 1884	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
600	1 December 1884	Thomas Boyd Eliza Boyd	Thomas Boyd Eliza Boyd 💍 1884/3045	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Auckland Auckland	6 years 10 years	Dwelling of W. S. Potter, Wakefield St	84/2834		1 December 1884	Revd W. S. Potter, Primitive Methodist

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).