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 773

District of Wellington 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
238	16 October 1884	Robert Young Shearer Mary Elizabeth Williams	Robert Young Shearer Mary Elizabeth Williams 💍 1884/1595	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	22 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	House of Mr W. H. Williams, Owen Street	84/3094		16 October 1884	Rev. W. Baymber
239	16 October 1884	Henry Ashworth Henrietta Louisa Holmes	Henry Ashworth Henrietta Louisa Holmes 💍 1884/3615	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 21	Wellington Kaiwara	1 month 7 years	St. Andrews Church	84/3115		16 October 1884	Rev. C. I. Ogg
240	18 October 1884	Thomas Seward Catherine Ethel Howard	Thomas Sewera Catherine Kemmer 💍 1884/3337	Widower Spinster	Fireman	32 24	Wellington Wellington	16 months 12 months	St. Mary of the Angels	84/3189		18 October 1884	Rev. P. Kerrigan
241	20 October 1884	James Davidson Jane Turnbull Scott	James Davidson Jane Turnbull Scott 💍 1884/3630	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 22	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	House of Mr W. Scott, Willis Street	84/3138		20 October 1884	Rev. John Muir
242	21 October 1884	Harry Edgar Nicholls Susan Sampson	Harry Edgar Nicholls Susan Sampson 💍 1884/3296	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 27	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Pauls Cathedral	84/3110		21 October 1884	Rev. R. J. Sharpe
243	21 October 1884	Alfred Little Margaret Scott	Alfred Little Margaret Mary Scott 💍 1884/3626	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	25 28	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Residence of Bride, Willis Street	84/3114		21 October 1884	Rev. C. I. Ogg
244	21 October 1884	Alfred Edward Mansfield Jessie Cheesman	Alfred Edward Mansford Jessie Cheesman 💍 1884/3291	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	36 21	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Peters Church	84/3105		21 October 1884	Ven. Archdeacon Stock
245	22 October 1884	Francis Hubble Theresa Deverall	Francis Hubble Teresa Deverall 💍 1884/3333	Bachelor Spinster	Telephone Line	22 22	Wellington Wellington	7 months 7 months	St. Mary of the Angels	84/3185		22 October 1884	Revd. P. Kerrigan
246	22 October 1884	Vincent Dentice Mary Bull	Vincent Dentrice Mary Bull 💍 1884/3289	Bachelor Spinster	Bookmaker	19 18	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Mr. Dentice's House, Cuba Street	84/3107	Leopold Dentice, father; Martha Bull, mother	22 October 1884	Revd. H. B. Redstone
247	27 October 1884	Walter Sydney Pope Catherine Ethel Howard	Walter Sydney Pope Catherine Ethel Howard 💍 1884/3635	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 23	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/3122		27 October 1884	Mr. W. I. Wayay
248	28 October 1884	Michael Wallace Mary McEtheran	Michael Wallace Mary McElhern 💍 1884/3335	Widower Widow	Labourer	42 38	Wellington Wellington	7 years 7 years	St. Mary of the Angels	84/3184		28 October 1884	Revd. P. Kerrigan
249	30 October 1884	George Mansfield Amy Crabtree	George Mansfield Amy Crabtree 💍 1884/1596	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 28	Wellington Wellington	10 days 7 years	Mr. Crabtree's House, Hopper Street	84/3095		30 October 1884	Revd. Wm. Baymber

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).