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 928

District of Hamilton 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
136	27 September 1884	John Reed Mary Ann Woods	John Rud Mary Ann Wood 💍 1884/3268 John Kelly Mary Ann Reddy 💍 1884/152 John Bird Mary Ann Barlow 💍 1884/1549 John Green Mary Ann Edgeworth 💍 1884/130	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 17	Hamilton Ngaruawahia	20 years 7 years	At the house of Mr. Allen, Ngaruawahia Road	84/3014	Mary Ann Allen, mother	1 October 1884	Rev. R. O. C. Biggs, Episcopalian
137	8 October 1884	John Wright Anne Browne	John Wright Anne Browne 💍 1884/3273	Bachelor Widow	Potter	39 38	Huntly Huntly	1 year 1 year	At the house of Mr. Edwin Wright	84/3022		8 October 1884	Rev. J. Duke, Wesleyan
138	10 October 1884	Joseph Petty Ellen Ida Davis	Joseph Petty Ellen Ida Davis 💍 1884/3272	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 19	Hamilton Hamilton	20 years 19 years	At the house of Mr. William Davis	84/3021	Mr. William Davis, Father	10 October 1884	Rev. J. Duke, Wesleyan
139	6 November 1884	George Melville Burlingham Alicia Griffith Jackson	George Melville Burlinson Alicia Griffith Jackson 💍 1884/3269	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	30 19	Ngaruawahia Ngaruawahia	1 year 23 years	At the house of Mr. James Jackson, Ngaruawahia	84/3018	Mr. James Jackson, Father	6 November 1884	Rev. R. O. C. Biggs, Episcopalian
140	18 November 1884	Job Hinton Millie Hunt	Job Hinton Millie Hunt 💍 1884/3270	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	21 21	Hamilton Hamilton	20 years 9 years	At the Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	84/3019		18 November 1884	Rev. R. O. C. Biggs, Episcopalian
141	2 December 1884	John Crawford Fanny Sarah Warr	John Crawford Fanny Sarah Marr 💍 1884/3271	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Oven Maker	23 21	Hamilton Hamilton	5 years 19 years	At the Episcopalian Church, Hamilton	84/3020		2 December 1884	Rev. R. O. C. Biggs, Episcopalian
142	29 December 1884	Thomas De Lent Sarah Bradford	Thomas De'Cent Sarah Bradford 💍 1884/3275	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 25	Woodlands Woodlands	3 years 4 months	Hukanui Hall, Hukanui	84/3023		29 December 1884	Rev. J. Duke, Wesleyan

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).