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 524

District of Mount Grey 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
26	2 January 1884	George Dean Greenwood Anne Elizabeth Chapman	George Dean Greenwood Annie Elizabeth Chapman 💍 1884/435	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	28 24	Amberley Leith	5 years 24 years	Leith English Church	84/471		2 January 1884	Revd. W. H. Wyatt, English Church Minister, Leith
27	3 January 1884	Thomas Edwin Baldwin Poole Ann Timms	Thomas Edwin Baldwin Poole Ann Timms 💍 1884/407	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Housemaid	21 18	Balcairn Balcairn	9 years 9 years	In the House of the Revd. W. McGregor, Amberley	84/454	John Timms	3 January 1884	Revd. W. McGregor, Presbyterian Minister, Amberley
28	22 January 1884	Richard Kemp Agnes Francis Thompson	Richard Kemp Agnes Francis Thomson 💍 1884/409	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	33 21	Amberley Amberley	11 years 6 years	House Amberley	84/458		28 January 1884	Revd. W. McGregor, Presbyterian Minister, Amberley
29	18 March 1884	Joseph Black Hunter Eliza Percival Dodd	Joseph Black Hunter Eliza Perceval Dodd 💍 1884/404	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	41 24	Amberley Waikari	6 years 12 years	Margaret Dodd's house, Napara	84/457		18 March 1884	Revd. Joseph Ripley, Wesleyan Minister, Amberley
30	24 March 1884	William Birdling Elizabeth Alice Lough	William Birdling Elizabeth Alice Lough 💍 1884/406	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	31 22	Spreydon Amberley	11 Months 20 years	Amberley English Church	84/456		24 March 1884	Revd. Henry Collins, English Church Minister, Leithfield
31	24 March 1884	Thomas Hilson Margaret Rebecca Sevil	Thomas Hilson Margaret Melrose Trail 💍 1884/410	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer's Assistant	31 18	Sefton Leithfield	1 1/2 years 12 years	Presbyterian Church, Leithfield	84/459	George Sevil	24 March 1884	Revd. R. Yout, Presbyterian Minister, Sefton
32	25 March 1884	Edmund Alfred Le Fleming Mary Agnes Pemberton	Edmund Alfred Le Fleming Ensor Inez Agnes Pemberton 💍 1884/405	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 18	Mt. Grey Station Sefton	6 years 18 years	Sefton Church of England	84/455	Charles Pemberton	25 March 1884	Revd. Henry Collins, English Church Minister, Leithfield

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).