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 629

District of Nelson Quarter ending 31 March 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
15	11 March 1884	Charles Howell Esther Naomi Sowman	Charles Howell Esther Naomi Sowman 💍 1884/382	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Nil	24 24	Tasman Street Nelson Tasman Street Nelson	3 years 24 years	Residence of Sarah Sowman Tasman Street Nelson	84/401		11 March 1884	Revd Edward Nightingale Church of England
16	18 March 1884	Newman Boseley Selina Carey	Newman Boseley Selina Carey 💍 1884/377	Widower Widow	Gardener Nurse	59 50	Wakapuaka, Nelson Nile Street Nelson	23 years 8 years	Residence of Frederick Merritt Nile Street Nelson	84/402		18 March 1884	Revd Patrick Calder Presbyterian Church
17	18 March 1884	Albert Maitland Rutledge Agnes Dunn	Albert Maitland Ruttlidge Agnes Dunn 💍 1884/378	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Milliner	31 25	Nile Street Nelson Nile Street Nelson	5 days 6 weeks	Residence of Frederick Hamilton Nile Street Nelson	84/403		18 March 1884	Revd Patrick Calder Presbyterian Church
18	22 March 1884	Robert Pollock Mary Sarah Nesbitt	Robert Pollock Mary Sarah Nesbitt 💍 1884/379	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Nil	25 21	St Vincent Street Nelson Nile Street East Nelson	25 years 21 years	Presbyterian Church	84/404		22 March 1884	Revd Patrick Calder Presbyterian Church
19	24 March 1884	Alfred Roberts Harriet Ann Roberts	Alfred Roberts Harriet Ann Roberts 💍 1884/394	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	29 21	Waimea Road Nelson Waimea Road Nelson	9 months 9 years	Wesleyan Church	84/395		24 March 1884	Revd William Lee Wesleyan Church
20	25 March 1884	George David Newman Esther Satherley	George David Menian Esther Satherly 💍 1884/388	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	22 20	Spring Grove Waimea Waimea West	22 years 20 years	Residence of John Wakefield	84/412	John Satherley, Father	25 March 1884	Revd William Kirk Wesleyan Church

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).