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 796

District of Wellington 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
1	4 January 1884	Fred Matthews Mary Elizabeth Hutchen	Fred Matthews Mary Elizabeth Hitchens 💍 1884/517	Bachelor Widow	Painter	24 22	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Mr Hayes House, Nairn Street	84/306		4 January 1884	Revd. L. N. Hunter
2	4 January 1884	Bernard Fear Whitaker Agnes Brogan	Bernard Lear Whittaker Agnes Brogan 💍 1884/341	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	27 25	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Mary's Cathedral	84/316		4 January 1884	Revd. James C. Namara
3	5 January 1884	Joseph Jacobs Margaret Warwick	Joseph Jacobs Margaret Warwick 💍 1884/289	Bachelor Widow	Brewer	27 46	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Mr Rixons House, Cambridge Terrace	84/286		5 January 1884	Revd. H. B. Redstone
4	7 January 1884	Frederick Knox de Castro Louisa Mary Hyde	Frederick Knox de Castro Louisa Mary Hyde 💍 1884/526	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Marks Church	84/291		7 January 1884	Revd. C. H. de Castro
5	11 January 1884	Walter Henry Duncan Maria Neill	Walter Henry Duncan Maria Neill 💍 1884/968	Bachelor Widow	Bookkeeper	26 41	Wellington Wellington	5 days 1 year	House of Mrs Neill, Ghuznee Street	84/1244		11 January 1884	Revd. J. Paterson
6	14 January 1884	David Webbley Mary Beale	David Webley Mary Beale 💍 1884/510	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	31 21	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	Mr Beales Store, Grant Road	84/299		14 January 1884	Revd. W. Baumber
7	14 January 1884	Adam Frederick Theodore Erlenmeyer Annie Swanke	Adam Frederick Theodore Erlenmeyer Annie Siranke Bunn Eade 💍 1884/257	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	32 21	Wellington Wellington	1 month 3 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/254		14 January 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
8	15 January 1884	Jens Christian Eli Nielsen Ann Martha Nixon	Jens Christian Eli Heilesen Ann Martha Nixon 💍 1884/258	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 21	Wellington Wellington	15 months 1 year	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/255		15 January 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
9	16 January 1884	William Eugene Gillam Mary Ann Thwaite	William Eugene Gillam Mary Ann Haythornthwaite 💍 1884/522	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	24 29	Wellington Karori	3 days 3 days	St. Mary's Church, Karori	84/310		16 January 1884	Revd. Alexander Dasent
10	16 January 1884	William Thomas Mack Clara Maria Mary Forbes	William Thomas Mack Clara Maud Mary Forbes 💍 1884/531	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	28 20	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Peters Church	84/296	Constance Clara Forbes, mother	16 January 1884	Venble. Archdeacon Stock
11	16 January 1884	James Fermore Martin Elizabeth Mary Frances Godfrey	James Fremore Martin Elizabeth Mary Frances Godfrey 💍 1884/969	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	27 22	Wellington Wellington	1 year 1 year	St. Johns Church, Willis Street	84/1245		16 January 1884	Revd. J. Paterson
12	16 January 1884	George Gordon Grace Carbis	George Gordon Grace Carbis 💍 1884/263	Widower Spinster	Labourer	28 24	Wellington Wellington	1 year 2 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/259		16 January 1884	J. G. Holdsworth

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).