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 843

District of Wanganui 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
49	7 October 1884	Thomas Charles Gower Florence Hartin	Thomas Charles Gomer Florence Harlin 💍 1884/1548	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Guard	31 21	Wanganui Wanganui	14 months 14 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	84/3056	7 October 1884	S. H. Nowell, Registrar
50	22 October 1884	James Potterill Teresa Gillian	James Cotterill Teresa Gilligan 💍 1884/1665	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 16	No. 3 Line No. 3 Line	3 years 9 years	In the Red Lion Hotel, Wanganui	84/3057	22 October 1884	G. H. Kirk, Roman Catholic
51	22 October 1884	William Fowle Mills Helen Margaret Anderson	William Foster Mills Helen Margaret Anderson 💍 1884/1538	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 27	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Church of England, Wanganui	84/3058	22 October 1884	F. L. Tudor, Church of England
52	28 October 1884	Percival Hilton Harwood Jane Purches	Percy Gibson Harwood Jane Purches 💍 1884/1546	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 19	Wanganui East Town	4 years 5 years	In the residence of Mr. G. Purches, East Town	84/3059	28 October 1884	William Tinsley, Wesleyan
53	6 November 1884	John Bird Mary Ann Barlow	John Bird Mary Ann Barlow 💍 1884/1549	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 24	No. 2 Line Okoia	2 years 6 months 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	84/3060	6 November 1884	S. H. Nowell, Registrar
54	17 November 1884	John Hinman Amelia Jane Heaton	John Newman Amelia Jane Heaton 💍 1884/1550	Widower Spinster	Produce Dealer	41 25	Wanganui Wanganui	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	84/3061	17 November 1884	F. H. Nowell, Registrar
55	28 November 1884	Neil McDonald Elizabeth Pearson	Neil McDonald Elizabeth Pearson 💍 1884/1528	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 26	Marangai No. 1 Line Marangai No. 1 Line	9 years 4 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Wanganui	84/3062	28 November 1884	F. H. Nowell, Registrar
56	1 December 1884	John Redmond Ann McLaren	John Redmond Ann McLaren 💍 1884/1529	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	27 26	Wanganui Wanganui	12 months 16 months	In the residence of Mr. Wm. McLaren, Wanganui	84/3063	1 December 1884	James Treadwell, Presbyterian
57	11 December 1884	Charles Johnston Louisa Catherine Lebourne	Charles Johnston Arthur Louisa Lebourne 💍 1884/1547	Widower Spinster	Custom House Labourer	30 30	Wanganui Wanganui	7 years 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Wanganui	84/3064	11 December 1884	William Tinsley, Wesleyan

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).