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 869

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 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
79	8 January 1884	Charles Magon Kathleen Alexander	Charles Magaw Kathleen Alexander 💍 1884/168	Bacheler Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	25 18	Hawera Hawera	3 years 7 years	W. Waltham's Residence	84/213	Henry Alexander, Guardian	8 January 1884	Rev. W. H. Root, Church of England
80	22 January 1884	William Cassidy Kate Wagstaff	William Cassidy Kate Wagstaff 💍 1884/171	Bacheler Spinster	A.C. Force	23 21	Hawera Hawera	35 days 4 months	Registrars Office	84/214		22 January 1884	H. H. Halliday, Deputy Registrar
81	24 January 1884	Alfred Olaf Sprode Margaret McFatchan	Alfred Olaf Sproule Margaret McCutchan 💍 1884/169 Alfred Clarke Margaret McDonald 💍 1885/188	Bacheler Spinster	Storekeeper	24 23	Hawera Hawera	6 days 7 years	English Church	84/214		24 January 1884	Rev. W. H. Root, Church of England
82	16 February 1884	Daniel Bogue Catherine Goodwin	Daniel Bogue Catherine Goodwin 💍 1884/172	Bacheler Spinster	Constable A.C. Force	28 22	Manaia Hawera	7 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church	84/214		16 February 1884	Rev. A. D. Maloshill, Roman Catholic Priest
83	26 February 1884	Jeremiah Thain Margaret Brown	Jeremiah Thain Margaret Brown 💍 1884/173	Bacheler Spinster	Laborer General Servant	29 18	Hawera Hawera	7 years 4 months	Roman Catholic Church	84/218	John Henry Brown, father	26 February 1884	Rev. A. D. Maloshill, Roman Catholic Priest
84	1 March 1884	John Matheson Rhoda Lewis	John Matheson Rhoda Lewis 💍 1884/174	Bacheler Spinster	Clerk	26 20	Manaia Manaia	3 days 18 months	The Residence of Mr. C. Lewis	84/219	Charles Lewis, father	1 March 1884	Rev. James Torry, Presbyterian
85	19 March 1884	Charles Carr Rarua Teamotu Ngahoro	Charles Carr Rarua Teamotu Ngahoro 💍 1884/170	Bacheler Spinster	Timber Merchant aboriginal	29 23	Manaia Manaia	12 years 23 years	Residence of Mr. Charles Carr, Residence of Mrs. Manaia	84/215		19 March 1884	Rev. James Torry, Presbyterian

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).