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 793

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
37	14 February 1884	David Andrews Fanny Banks	David Andrews Fanny Banks 💍 1884/514	Bachelor Spinster	Woodmerchant	23 24	Wellington Wellington	years 9 months	Residence of Revd. J. T. Hinton, Abel Smith Street	84/303		14 February 1884	Revd. J. T. Hinton
38	15 February 1884	James Bennett Connolly Anne Catherine Pagon	James Bennett Connolly Annie Pagon 💍 1884/343	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	24 22	Wellington Wellington	years years	Roman Catholic Cathedral	84/318		15 February 1884	Revd. J. McNamara
39	16 February 1884	Charles Parr Bell Alice Dorothy Sercombe	Charles Parr Bell Alice Dorothy Sercombe 💍 1884/292	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	35 25	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	84/266		16 February 1884	J. G. Holdsworth
40	16 February 1884	Harold Beauchamp Annie Burnett Dyer	Harold Beauchamp Annie Burnett Dyer 💍 1884/347	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	25 19	Wellington Wellington	years years	St. Pauls, Cathedral	84/322	Margaret Dyer, Mother	16 February 1884	Revd. R. J. Thorpe
41	16 February 1884	John Goldrick Eliza Cain	John Goldrick Eliza Cain 💍 1884/344	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	40 44	Wellington Wellington	1 year years	Roman Catholic Cathedral	84/319		16 February 1884	Revd. J. McNamara
42	18 February 1884	Albert Dawson Mary Jane Haddick	Albert Dawson Mary Jane Maddock 💍 1884/290	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 20	Wellington Wellington	2 weeks years	United free methodist Church	84/284	William Haddick, Father	18 February 1884	Revd. H. B. Redstone
43	18 February 1884	William Purser Annie Clemo	William Purser Annie Clemo 💍 1884/293	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 25	Wellington Wellington	1 year 9 months	Registrars office Wellington	84/267		18 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy
44	19 February 1884	William Campbell Catherine Elizabeth Nisbet	William Campbell Catherine Elizabeth Nisbet 💍 1884/294	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	29 28	Wellington Wellington	1 week 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	84/268		19 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy
45	19 February 1884	Walter Mexhed Agnes Eastward	Walter Mexted Agnes Eastwood 💍 1884/295	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 19	Porirua Porirua	years years	Registrars office Wellington	84/269	James Eastward, Father	19 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy
46	20 February 1884	Donald Duncan Mary Ellen Nelson	Donald Duncan Mary Ellen Nelson 💍 1884/296	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 18	Wellington Wellington	years years	Registrars office Wellington	84/270	Peter Nelson, Father	20 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy
47	21 February 1884	Walter Bayne Elvira Matilda Land	Walter Bayne Elvira Matilda Land 💍 1884/297	Widower Spinster	Cabinet maker	57 55	Wellington Wellington	3 days 3 days	Registrars office Wellington	84/271		21 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy
48	23 February 1884	George James Cochrane Mary Elizabeth Matilda Hickie	George James Cochrane Mary Elizabeth Matilda Hickie 💍 1884/298	Bachelor Spinster	Goldminer	28 22	Wellington Wellington	4 days 7 months	Registrars office Wellington	84/272		23 February 1884	Amelius M. Smith, Depy

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).