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 791

District of Wellington 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
61	11 March 1884	Hugh McGregor Joan Mary Fraser	Hugh McGregor Joan Mary Fraser 💍 1884/972	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. John's Church, Willis Street	84/1248		11 March 1884	Rev. J. Paterson
62	13 March 1884	John Hendrick Colpman Minnie Ellen Henry		Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/298		13 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
63	13 March 1884	Joseph Allen Sarah Ann Swort	Joseph Allen Sarah Ann Twort 💍 1884/513	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	23 22	Wellington Wellington	18 months 3 weeks	Residence of Mr Allen, Barker Street	84/1302		13 March 1884	Rev. R. Bavin
64	17 March 1884	Francis Jennings Margaret Ryan	Francis Jennings Margaret Ryan 💍 1884/281	Widower Spinster	Settler	29 26	Wellington Wellington	3 days years	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/279		17 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
65	17 March 1884	Albert Schnamdorf Jane Carson	Albert Schnarndorf Jane Carson 💍 1884/282	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/1280		17 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
66	24 March 1884	Robert Fletcher Frances Sarah Caplen	Robert Fletcher Frances Sarah Aspland 💍 1884/286	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	22 22	Wellington Wellington	years 1 year	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/283		24 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
67	24 March 1884	Daniel George Gee Margaret Weir	Daniel George Gee Margaret Weir 💍 1884/283	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	20 24	Wellington Wellington	2 months 1 week	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/281	Geo. Gee	24 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
68	25 March 1884	Crawford Greave Hannah Lulling	Crawford Greaves Hannah Ladbury 💍 1884/288	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	25 22	Island Bay Wellington	years 3 months	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/1285		25 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
69	25 March 1884	Albert Barnett Rose Nash	Albert Barnett Rose Nash 💍 1884/2160	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier	23 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Mary of the Angels	84/1184		25 March 1884	Rev. W. J. Lewis
70	25 March 1884	Halvor Pedersen Mary Ann Frederickson	Halvor Pedersen Mary Ann Frederickson 💍 1884/284	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 18	Wanganui Wanganui	years years	Registrars Office	84/1282	Father	25 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
71	25 March 1884	John Mager Elizabeth Baker	John Magee Elizabeth Baker 💍 1884/287	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	26 23	Hawtrey Road Wellington	years 1 week	Registrars Office, Wellington	84/1284		25 March 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
72	26 March 1884	Emil Victor Senn Emily Sophia Will	Emil Victor Senn Emily Sophia Mills 💍 1884/2102	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 21	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Peter's Church	84/1201		27 March 1884	Rev. R. Coffey

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).