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 511

District of Rangiora Quarter ending 30 September 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
441	2 July 1884	Mathew Charles Jury Emily Spilllard	Matthew Charles Jury Emily Spillard 💍 1884/2798	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	23 yrs 25 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	8 days 8 days	Wesleyan Church, Rangiora	84/12311		2 July 1884	Revd William Howse, Wesleyan
442	12 July 1884	William Thomas Watkins Laura Streeter	William Thomas Watkins Laura Streeter 💍 1884/2791	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	22 yrs 21 yrs	Rangiora Fernside, Rangiora	22 yrs 10 days	Church of England	84/12327		12 July 1884	Revd H. W. Dudley, Church of England
443	15 July 1884	Francis Craze Agnes Eva Tuckett	Francis Craze Agnes Eva Trickett 💍 1884/2799	Widower Spinster	Farmer Not any	34 yrs 21 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 3 days	Dwelling House of Revd William Howse	84/12312		15 July 1884	Revd William Howse, Wesleyan
444	13 August 1884	William George Rowe Ellen Pring	William George Rowe Ellen Pring 💍 1884/2792	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Not any	24 yrs 22 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	24 yrs 22 yrs	Church of England	84/12328		13 August 1884	Revd H. W. Dudley, Episcopalian
445	22 August 1884	William James Harker Gertrude Sheath	William Jarvis Harker Gertrude Mary Sheath 💍 1884/2796	Widower Spinster	Auctioneer Gentlewoman	41 yrs 27 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	3 days 1 year	Dwelling House of J. B. Sheath	84/12309		22 August 1884	Revd J. N. Hornfield, Roman Catholic
446	25 August 1884	Augustus Henry Stephens Esther Alice King	Augustus Henry Stephens Esther Alice King 💍 1884/2793	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Not any	21 yrs 19 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	21 yrs 4 yrs	Church of England	84/12329	Henry King, father	25 August 1884	Revd H. W. Dudley, Episcopalian
447	15 September 1884	John Bowie Alice Hannah Mathias	John Bowie Alice Hannah Mathias 💍 1884/2754	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Not any	35 yrs 23 yrs	Woodend, Rangiora Woodend, Rangiora	22 yrs 3 yrs	Church of England	84/2421		15 September 1884	Revd Chas H. Gosset, Episcopalian
448	16 September 1884	Frederick James Breach Ellen Thwaites	Fredrick James Breach Ellen Thwaites 💍 1884/2797	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	24 yrs 23 yrs	Rangiora Ashley, Rangiora	24 yrs 12 yrs	Free Methodist Church, Ashley	84/12310		16 September 1884	Revd John Partrick, Free Methodist Church
449	20 September 1884	John Lewes Louisa Elizabeth Luke	John Lewis Louisa Elizabeth Luke 💍 1884/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Layer Not any	28 yrs 24 yrs	Rangiora Rangiora	24 yrs 6 yrs	Dwelling House of Wm Bridget, Rangiora	84/12313		20 September 1884	Revd William Howse, Wesleyan Methodist

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).