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 694

District of Napier 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	5 January 1884	George Henry Swan Frances Stopher	George Henry Swan Frances Stopher 💍 1884/367	Widower Spinster	Brewer	49 22	Napier Napier	20 years 2 months	Registrar's Office	84/368		5 January 1884	The Registrar
2	8 January 1884	William Henry Riddam Martha Moore	William Henry Diddams Martha Moore 💍 1884/47	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	28 26	Napier Napier	18 months 9 months	Residence of S. H. Heal	84/361		8 January 1884	Rev. S. S. Lewis, Wesleyan
3	9 January 1884	John Hunt Jane Barn Oliver	John Hunt Jane Burnes Oliver 💍 1884/350	Bachelor Spinster	Drover	27 24	Puketapu Puketapu	3 days 10 years	Puketapu Schoolroom	84/344		9 January 1884	Rev. C. H. Luke, English Church
4	10 January 1884	Francis Joseph Palmer Lucy Duckett	Francis Joseph Kilner Lucy Duckett 💍 1884/1948	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 17	Napier Napier	4 years 14 days	Presbyterian Manse	84/828	Thomas Duckett, father	10 January 1884	Rev. G. S. Paterson, Presbyterian
5	12 January 1884	Frederick Windor Alice Wilks	Frederick Windsor Alice Wilkes 💍 1884/2268 Frederick Hansen Alice Hall 💍 1884/2602	Widower Widow	Civil servant	63 29	Napier Napier	8 years 6 years	St. John's Church	84/1285		12 January 1884	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
6	16 January 1884	Robert Pringle Bryden Clara Nelson	Robert Pringle Brydon Clara Elson 💍 1884/366	Widower Spinster	Storeman	58 41	Napier Napier	15 years 3 years	Mr. Carter's Residence	84/364		16 January 1884	Rev. I. Jones, Wesleyan
7	16 January 1884	Robert Rutherford Douglas Rachel Martha Young	Robert Rutherford Douglas Rachel Martha Young 💍 1884/2269	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 19	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	2 months 10 years	St. John's Church	84/1286	Martha Young, mother	16 January 1884	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
8	22 January 1884	Thomas Cleaver Eliza Carey	Thomas Cleaver Eliza Casey 💍 1884/368	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	31 35	Napier Napier	4 years 20 years	Registrar's Office	84/369		22 January 1884	Registrar
9	22 January 1884	Thomas Smyth Margaret H. Annoller	Thomas Smyth Margaret McConnalley 💍 1884/369	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	23 21	Napier Napier	9 months 1 year	Registrar's Office Napier	84/370		22 January 1884	Registrar

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).