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 770

District of Wellington 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	Officiating Minister
274	24 November 1884	Patrick McCarthy Mary Lean	Patrick McCarthy Mary Lean 💍 1884/3297	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 24	Foxton Wellington	4 years 2 years	St. Mary of the Angels	84/3191	Rev. P. Kerrigan
275	24 November 1884	Michael James Lynch Margaret Hurley	Michael James Lynch Margaret Hurley 💍 1884/3308	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Parkakariki Upper Hutt	18 years 4 years	St. Mary of the Angels	84/3192	Rev. P. Kerrigan
276	26 November 1884	Charles William Marshall Caroline Esther Jones	Charles William Marshall Caroline Esther Jones 💍 1884/3619	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 20	Johnsonville Johnsonville	4 years 3 days	Registrars Office	84/3128	W. T. Wyatt
277	28 November 1884	Herbert Walter Llewellyn Hawk Marianne Gleason	Herbert Walton Llewellyn Hawk Marianne Gleeson 💍 1884/3363	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	26 30	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St. Marys Cathedral	84/3142	Rev. John McNamara
278	28 November 1884	William Reid Mary Ann Wickins	William Reid Mary Ann Wickens 💍 1884/3618 William Reid Jane Elizabeth Whittlesen 💍 1884/2467	Widower Spinster	Labourer	43 25	Wellington Wellington	1 day 7 weeks	Registrars Office	84/3124	W. T. Wyatt
279	1 December 1884	George Henry Jackson Lavinia Emily Jackson	George Henry Jackson Lavinia Emily Mason 💍 1884/1597	Bachelor Widow	Painter	22 28	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Mr Jacksons House, Wordsworth Street	84/3096	Rev. W. C. Oliver
280	6 December 1884	Henry Francis Holland Jane Wells	Henry Francis Holland Jane Wells 💍 1884/1742	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 24	Lower Hutt Wellington	3 weeks 3 days	House of Rev. C. J. Ogg, Terrace	84/3694	Rev. C. J. Ogg
281	8 December 1884	John Wood Leonora Edmonds	John Wood Leonora Edmonds 💍 1884/3620	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	23 22	Petone Petone	2 years 3 years	Registrars Office	84/3129	W. T. Wyatt
282	9 December 1884	Frederick John Lloyd Emma Pay	Frederick John Floyd Emma Pay 💍 1884/3621	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	25 20	Wellington Wellington	3 years 7 years	Registrars Office	84/3130	W. T. Wyatt
283	10 December 1884	William Henry Renner Mary Amelia Garnham	William Henry Renner Mary Amelia Garnham 💍 1884/3622	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	30 24	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars Office	84/3131	W. T. Wyatt
284	11 December 1884	Charles Lever Elizabeth Prior	Horatio Nelson Booth Elizabeth Prior 💍 1884/1067	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 22	Ohariu Ohariu	3 weeks 4 years	Registrars Office	84/3132	W. T. Wyatt
285	12 December 1884	Jens Peter Christensen Mary Ann Barnes	Jens Peter Christensen Mary Ann Barnes 💍 1884/3624	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	28 27	Wellington Wellington	3 years 4 years	Registrars Office	84/3133	W. T. Wyatt

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).