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 779

District of Wellington 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
167	15 July 1884	Andrew Pedersen Susan Hannah Holdsworth	Andrew Pedersen Susan Hannah Holdsworth 💍 1884/626	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	26 26	Wellington Wellington	1 month 2 years	Registrars office Wellington	84/2162		15 July 1884	W. I. Wyatt Depy
168	15 July 1884	William Dignat Louisa Wilkins	William Signal Louisa Wilkins 💍 1884/2678	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Mr Dignats Home Tinakori Road	84/2145		15 July 1884	Revd J. J. Hinton Bath
169	17 July 1884	Andrew Clark Junr. Marion Fleet	Andrew Clark Junr Marion Flint 💍 1884/608	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	19 19	Wellington Wellington	4 years 9 months	Registrars office Wellington	84/2168	Andrew Clark father, No parents	31 July 1884	W. I. Wyatt Depy
170	19 July 1884	Charles Henry Parker Laura Osborn	Charles Henry Parker Laura Osborne 💍 1884/629	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	20 16	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office Wellington	84/2165	Elizabeth Osborn mother, James Osborn father	19 July 1884	W. I. Wyatt Depy
171	19 July 1884	Alfred Lipman Levy Annie Elizabeth Penfold	Alfred Lipman Levy Annie Elizabeth Pinfold 💍 1884/1248	Widower Spinster	Shoemaker	38 24	Wellington Wellington	8 months 4 months	Mr Levys house Willis Street	84/2188		19 July 1884	Revd John Moir Pro
172	22 July 1884	John Smylie McDowell Thompson Charlotte Ellen Katherine Kind	John Smylie McDewell Thompson Charlotte Ellen Katherine Krull 💍 1884/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	42 21	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	St Pauls Cathedral	84/2191		22 July 1884	Venble Archdeacon Stock Goff
173	22 July 1884	Alexander James Bracken Ellen Milne	Alexander James Mackie Ellen Milne 💍 1884/2679	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 25	Wellington Hutt	2 days 4 years	Mr W. S. Milnes house Taita, Hutt	84/2146		22 July 1884	Revd D. D. Rodger Pres
174	23 July 1884	William Bath Selina Spittle	William Bath Selina Spittle 💍 1884/2683	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	29 26	Wellington Wellington	18 months 6 months	St Peters Church	84/2150		23 July 1884	Venble Archdeacon Stock Goff
175	23 July 1884	Hugh Morrow Fanny Elizabeth Capper	Hugh Morrow Fanny Elizabeth Capper 💍 1884/606	Widower Spinster	Clerk	44 23	Wellington Wellington	4 years 4 years	Registrars office Wellington	84/2166		23 July 1884	W. I. Wyatt Depy
176	24 July 1884	Walter William Kemp Baker Lucinda Gilpin	Walter William Kemp Baker Lucinda Gilpin 💍 1884/2682	Bachelor Spinster	Florist	27 26	Wellington Wellington	9 months 8 months	St Peters Church	84/2149		24 July 1884	Venble Archdeacon Stock Goff
177	26 July 1884	Henry Howard Heyman Sarah Elizabeth Garthon	Henry Howard Heyman Sarah Elizabeth Garthon 💍 1884/607	Bachelor Spinster	Travelling agent	26 21	Wellington Wellington	1 week 5 weeks	Registrars office Wellington	84/2167		26 July 1884	W. I. Wyatt Depy
178	28 July 1884	William Fox Susannah Boyle	William John Fox Sussanah Boyle 💍 1884/2785	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	23 21	Wellington Wellington	6 weeks 1 month	St Marys Cathedral	84/2322		28 July 1884	Revd John Mc Namara Rp

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).