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 369

District of Ashburton Quarter ending 31 December 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
380	1 October 1884	Walter Scott Harkness Amelia Ward	Walter Scott Harkness Amelia Ward 💍 1884/3453	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	32 years 22 years	Ashburton Ashburton	1 year 2 weeks	Registrar's Office	84/3400		1 October 1884	J. Ward, Registrar
381	2 October 1884	Henry James Jones Thirza Groves	Henry James Jones Thurza Groves 💍 1884/700	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 years 19 years	Tinwald Ashburton	5 years 10 years	St. Stephen's Church	84/1373	Alfred Groves, father	2 October 1884	Revd. E. A. Scott, Church of England
382	15 October 1884	Henry Bradshaw Mary Ann Stickman	Henry Bradshaw Mary Ann Hickman 💍 1884/3849	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic Servant	37 years 22 years	Tinwald Winslow	4 years 3 years	In the private dwellinghouse of Thomas Stickman at Winslow	84/13394		15 October 1884	Revd. C. H. Standage, Wesleyan
383	20 October 1884	Walter Mullis Elizabeth Jane Stewart	Walter Mullis Elizabeth Jane Stuart 💍 1884/3454	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	23 years 27 years	Ashburton Ashburton	11 months 12 months	Registrar's Office	84/3401		20 October 1884	J. Ward, Registrar
384	22 October 1884	Henry Giles Berryman Eva Steel	Henry Giles Berryman Eva Steel 💍 1884/3457	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 years 25 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 4 years	Wesleyan Church	84/13403		22 October 1884	Revd. C. H. Standage, Wesleyan
385	24 October 1884	Jeremiah Currie Harriett Polick	Jeremiah Carrie Harriett Blick 💍 1884/3850	Bachelor Spinster	Shunter Milliner	26 years 24 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 years 18 months	Private dwellinghouse of Samuel Lucas	84/13395		24 October 1884	Revd. C. H. Standage, Wesleyan
386	29 October 1884	William Charles Bishop Frances King	William Charles Bishop Frances King 💍 1884/3455	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 years 22 years	Ashburton Ashburton	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	84/13402		29 October 1884	J. Ward, Registrar
387	1 November 1884	Richard Nealon Mary Lee	Richard Nealon Mary Lee 💍 1884/675	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	28 years 23 years	Ashburton Ashburton	8 years 3 1/2 years	Roman Catholic Church	84/13724		1 November 1884	Revd. Edmd. Coffey, Roman Catholic
388	12 November 1884	William Lidstone Margaret McKay	William Lidstone Margaret Mackay 💍 1884/3451	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	34 years 31 years	Waterton Longbeach	13 years 9 months	Templar Hall	84/13398		12 November 1884	Revd. Alexander Blake, Presbyterian

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).