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 454

District of Christchurch 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
136	22 April 1884	Frederick Heart Christiana McNiven		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 27	Christchurch Christchurch	12 years 5 years	House of John Menzies, Avon Street	84/1484		22 April 1884	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
137	22 April 1884	Henry Augustus Chambers Page Florence Raworth	Henry Augustus Chambers Page Florence Jane Raxworthy 💍 1884/2364	Bachelor Spinster	Attendant	26 18	Christchurch Christchurch	3 years 18 years	St. Mary's Church	84/1478	Robert Raworthy, Father	22 April 1884	Rev. H. Rast, Church of England
138	22 April 1884	James Lynch Sarah Emerson	James Lynch Sarah Emerson 💍 1884/2244	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman Servant	24 22	Christchurch Christchurch	4 years 16 years	Registrar's Office	84/1428		22 April 1884	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Verrall
139	23 April 1884	Uriah James Williams Rosina Hazelwood	Uriah James Williams Rosina Hazelwood 💍 1884/2245	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 16	Christchurch Christchurch	8 years 3 days	Registrar's Office	84/1429	Elizabeth Hazelwood, Mother	23 April 1884	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Verrall
140	24 April 1884	Hugh Brown Clara Smith	Hugh Brown Clara Smith 💍 1884/2312	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	26 16	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	St. Michael's Church	84/1462	Edmund Smith, Father	24 April 1884	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England
141	24 April 1884	Thomas Henry Mills Mary Ann Bean	Thomas Henry Mills Mary Ann Bean 💍 1884/2246	Bachelor Widow	Farmer Farmer	25 29	Christchurch Christchurch	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	84/1430		24 April 1884	Registrar of Marriages, J. M. Verrall
142	25 April 1884	James Cooke Mercy Ward	James Cooke Mary Ward 💍 1884/2308	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	22 25	Prebbleton Prebbleton	12 years 12 years	House of Samuel Ward	84/1454		25 April 1884	Rev. R. J. Porter, Presbyterian
143	26 April 1884	William Mudgley Priscilla Jane Briggs	William Midgley Priscilla Jane Briggs 💍 1884/1011	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	26 30	Christchurch Christchurch	2 years 3 years	Baptist Chapel, Oxford Terrace	84/1488		26 April 1884	Rev. C. Dallaston, Baptist
144	26 April 1884	John Walter Belgrave Elizabeth Clarke	John Walter Belgrave Elizabeth Clarke 💍 1884/2357	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Dressmaker	23 22	Christchurch Christchurch	9 years 1 year	St. Michael's Church	84/1463		26 April 1884	Rev. W. Harper, Church of England

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).