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 513

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 June 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
431	1 April 1884	John Weller Jane Prior	John Willis Jane Prior 💍 1884/2215	Bachelor Spinster	Miller not any	22 yrs 23 yrs	Southbrook Fernside	9 years 3 years	Church of England Fernside	84/1374		1 April 1884	Rev E. R. Otway, Episcopalian
432	2 April 1884	Robert McCormick Elizabeth Fewster	Robert McCormick Elizabeth Fewster 💍 1884/2212	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	35 yrs 27 yrs	Waicora Rangiora Rangiora	1 year 3 months	Office of Registrar	84/1341		2 April 1884	E. H. Good, Deputy Registrar
433	10 April 1884	James Keir Janet Young Wallace	James Keir Janet Young Wallace 💍 1884/2209	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith not any	27 yrs 24 yrs	Ashburton Flaxton	27 years 12 years	George Wallace Ashburton	84/1368	George Wallace, father	10 April 1884	Rev Joseph Rapley, Wesleyan
434	15 April 1884	Robert Cunningham Macauley Annabella Coates	Robert Cunningham Macauley Anne Bella Coates 💍 1884/2230	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	26 yrs 19 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 2 years	Church of England	84/1365	Jas Henry Coates, father	15 April 1884	Rev B. W. Dudley, Episcopalian
435	23 April 1884	John Blake Jane Elizabeth Murrell	John Blake Jane Elizabeth Burrell 💍 1884/2213	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	25 yrs 20 yrs	Fernside Fernside	13 years 5 years	Presbyterian Church Ashley	84/1372	George Murrell, father	26 April 1884	Rev R. H. Louit, Presbyterian
436	25 April 1884	Michael Ford Annie Lykes	Michael Ford Annie Sykes 💍 1884/2211	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant Saleswoman	23 yrs 21 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	4 days 4 days	Office of Registrar	84/1340		25 April 1884	A. H. Cunningham, Registrar
437	26 April 1884	Joseph Bernard Fleet Sarah Wilson Keyland	Joseph Bernard Fleet Sarah Wilson Keyland 💍 1884/2208	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer not any	22 yrs 20 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 19 days	Roman Catholic Church	84/1367	(After 14 days Notice) Declaration having been made as required by law	12 May 1884	Rev J. N. Bunfield, Roman Catholic
438	5 May 1884	Harry Murfitt Caroline Sigismund Seawood	Harry Murfitt Katherine Leawood 💍 1884/2214	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	26 yrs 18 yrs	Wood End Wood End	26 years 18 years	Church of England Wood End	84/1373	Father	5 May 1884	Rev C. H. Gossett, Episcopalian
439	8 May 1884	James Hamilton Emily Walker	James Hamilton Emily Walters 💍 1884/2210	Bachelor Spinster	Labour not any	27 yrs 18 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	5 years 4 years	Wesleyan Church Rangiora	84/1369	Joseph Walker, father	8 May 1884	Rev W. Rouse, Wesleyan
440	6 June 1884	George Frederick Smith Lucy Caroline Bean	George Frederick Smith Lucy Caroline Bean 💍 1884/2207	Bachelor Spinster	Draper not any	26 yrs 25 yrs	Christchurch Rangiora	7 years 24 years	Church of England Rangiora Christchurch	84/1366		6 June 1884	Rev B. W. Dudley, Episcopalian

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 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).