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 371

District of Ashburton 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
366	2 July 1884	Thomas Dunn Sarah Patrick	Thomas Dunn Sarah Patrick 💍 1884/2769	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 19 years	Dromore Trevorton	3 years 1 year	Private dwellinghouse of Joseph Meeker at Trevorton	84/2444	Joseph Meeker, Guardian	2 July 1884	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian
367	7 July 1884	Frederick Bradshaw Eliza Jackson Hughes	Frederick Bradshaw Eliza Jackson Hughes 💍 1884/2766	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright & Carpenter Domestic Servant	28 years 18 years	Tinwald Ashburton	4 years 7 years	Private dwellinghouse of Richard Jackson Hughes, Ashburton	84/2441	Richard Jackson Hughes, father	7 July 1884	Revd. C. H. Standage, Church of England, Wesleyan
368	7 July 1884	Thomas Barber Constance Perdue	Thomas Barber Constance Perdue 💍 1884/2767	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	22 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	9 years 2 years	St. Stephen's Church, Ashburton	84/2442		7 July 1884	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
369	18 July 1884	Michael Carmody Louisa Martha Rippingale	Michael Carmody Louisa Martha Rippingale 💍 1884/1719	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	28 years 21 years	Ashburton Forks Ashburton Forks	5 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Church, Ashburton	84/319		18 July 1884	Revd. Edmund P. Coffey, Roman Catholic
370	2 August 1884	William Kemble Rose Henrietta Mary Beeson	William Kemble Rose Henrietta Mary Secord 💍 1884/2814	Widower Spinster	Carpenter Housekeeper	50 years 21 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	84/2444		2 August 1884	J Ward, Registrar
371	11 August 1884	George Henry Sewell Grace Paterson	George Henry Sewell Grace Paterson 💍 1884/2770	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 years 20 years	Longbeach Wakanui	5 years 6 years	Presbyterian Manse, Ashburton	84/2445	Thomas Paterson, father	12 August 1884	Revd. A. M. Beattie, Presbyterian
372	18 August 1884	Edward Hayes Roberts Frederick Butler Lydia Wilson	Edward Hayes Charles Frederick Butler Lydia Wilson 💍 1884/2821	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	38 years 24 years	Ashburton Dromore	4 years 2 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	84/2448		18 August 1884	J Ward, Registrar
373	2 September 1884	Andrew Macpherson Annie Tulley	Andrew MacPherson Annie Tulley 💍 1884/693	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	25 years 20 years	Ashburton Middleton	12 years 20 years	Church of England, Riccarton		Elizabeth Tulley, mother	2 September 1884	Revd. C. Bowen, Riccarton
374	6 September 1884	George Capil Eliza Groves	George Capil Eliza Groves 💍 1884/2822	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	6 months 10 years	Registrar's Office, Ashburton	84/2449		6 September 1884	J Ward, Registrar

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).