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 1006

District of Drury Quarter ending 30 September 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
7/84	7 July 1884	Thomas Nation Jane Gordon	Thomas Watson Jane Gordon 💍 1884/1455 William Ratcliffe Jane Gordon 💍 1884/3222 James Nasey Kate Gordon 💍 1884/1731	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	22 years 21 years	Pokeno Pokeno	2 years 16 years	dwelling house of Mr Thomas Gordon, Pokeno	84/2985		7 July 1884	Rev J W Dunn, Presbyterian Minister
8/84	28 July 1884	Jacob Barclay Chiplin Jane Binney	Jacob Barclay Chiplin Jane Binny McIntyre 💍 1884/713	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	24 years 17 years	Whangarata Pokeno	3 years 17 years	dwelling house of Mr P McJulyre	84/3811	Mr McJulyre, Father	28 July 1884	Rev J W Dunn, Presbyterian Minister
9/84	13 August 1884	Finlay McIntyre Catherine Paton	Findlay McIntyre Catherine Paton 💍 1884/2593	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 years 24 years	Mauroa South Mauroa South	19 years 14 years	dwelling house of Mr Paton Mauroa	84/2042		13 August 1884	Rev J Norrie, Presbyterian Minister
10/84	13 August 1884	John McGahan Catherine Walshe	John McGahan Catherine Walshe 💍 1884/718	Bachelor Spinster	Platelayer	28 years 24 years	Tuakau Tuakau	5 years 3 days	Roman Catholic Church, Pukekohe	84/3815		13 August 1884	Rev P Costello, R Catholic Minister
11/84	27 August 1884	William Edward Oldham Elizabeth Ann Moffatt	William Edward Oldham Elizabeth Ann Moffatt 💍 1884/714	Bachelor Spinster	Mill owner	27 years 20 years	Mercer Tuakau	3 years 1 year	dwelling house of Mr W Mc Kerras, Tuakau	84/3812	Mr William Kerras, Mother	27 August 1884	Rev J W Dunn, Presbyterian Minister
12/84	17 September 1884	George Powell Eliza Jane Carter	George Powell Eliza Jane Carter 💍 1884/2591	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 years 20 years	Hukunui Bombay	7 years 19 years	Church of St Peter in the Forest, Bombay	84/2040	Henry Carter, Father	17 September 1884	Rev P S Smallfield, Anglican Minister
13/84	17 September 1884	George Wootten Elizabeth Phillis Jessop	George Wootten Elizabeth Phillis Jessup 💍 1884/2592	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 years 18 years	Bombay Bombay	19 years 18 years	dwelling house of Mr Jessop, Bombay	84/2041	John Jessop, Father	19 September 1884	Rev P S Smallfield, Anglican Minister
14/84	20 September 1884	Samuel Gordon Isabella Frances McPherson	Samuel Gordon Isabella France McPherson 💍 1884/2594	Bachelor Spinster	platelayer	30 years 26 years	Auckland Pokeno	4 months 2 months	dwelling house of Mr Mc Pherson, Pokeno	84/2043		20 September 1884	Rev T Norrie, Presbyterian Minister

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).