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 930

District of Hamilton 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
124	1 July 1884	Thomas Blanchett Thompson Jane Ann Innes	Thomas Blanchet Thompson Jane Ann Innes 💍 1884/2976	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22	Morrinsville Morrinsville	6 years 6 years	At the Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	84/2493		1 July 1884	Revd R. O'C. Biggs, Episcopalian
125	5 July 1884	Thomas Henry Kelly Elizabeth Crawford	Thomas Henry Kelly Elizabeth Crawford 💍 1884/1224	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Hamilton Hamilton	3 years 9 years	At the Office of the Registrar	84/2072		5 July 1884	B. C. Beale, Registrar
126	14 July 1884	Alfred Corbett Lowanna Frances Gibbons	Alfred Corbett Loucy Gibbons 💍 1884/2977	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Whatawhata Ngamawahia	1 year 6 months	At the Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	84/2494	George Gibbons, Father, Gisborne	14 July 1884	Revd R. O'C. Biggs, Episcopalian
127	21 July 1884	Thomas George Smith Christina Blow Gall	Thomas George Smith Christina Clow Gall 💍 1884/3653	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	21 19	Ngamawahia Rangiriri	4 months 10 years	At the home of Mr James Gall, Rangiriri	84/2067	Mr James Gall, Mother	21 July 1884	Revd J. Dukes, Wesleyan
128	26 July 1884	Israel Evan Pavoreal Brown Ellen Pratt	Israel Evan Pavreal Ellen Pratt 💍 1884/1223 James Jamieson Ellen Pratt 💍 1885/850	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27	Hamilton Hamilton	20 years 3 months	At the Office of the Registrar	84/2071	Mother	26 July 1884	B. C. Beale, Registrar
129	18 August 1884	William Henry Munro Margaret Jane Costello	William Henry Munro Margaret Jane Costello 💍 1884/1299	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	23 18	Hamilton Hamilton	20 years 5 years	At the Episcopalian Church	84/2496	William John Costello, Father, The Manuka	21 August 1884	Revd R. O'C. Biggs, Episcopalian
130	19 August 1884	George Lexton Sarah Augusta Rayson	George Sexton Sarah Augusta Rayson 💍 1884/2978	Widower Widow	Platelayer Nurse	48 46	Hamilton Hamilton	1 year 3 years	At the Episcopalian Church	84/2495		19 August 1884	Revd R. O'C. Biggs, Episcopalian
131	23 August 1884	George Henry Anderson Amelia Mary Laura McPherson	George Henry Anderson Amelia Mary Laura Mcpherson 💍 1884/3654	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Hamilton Frankton	2 years 19 years	At the house of W. H. McPherson, Frankton	84/2068	W. H. McPherson, Father, Frankton	23 August 1884	Revd J. Dukes, Wesleyan
132	1 September 1884	Alfred James Stewart Mary Turanga	Alfred James Stewart Mary Turanga 💍 1884/1217	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	28 23	Te Awamutu Te Awamutu	2 years 20 years	At the Office of the Registrar	84/2070		1 September 1884	B. C. Beale, Registrar

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).