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 1023

District of Auckland 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
615	9 December 1884	Edward Hugh Shoard Sarah Elizabeth Wheeler	Edward Hugh Shoard Sarah Elizabeth Wheeler 💍 1884/698	Bachelor Spinster	Letter carrier	30 33	Auckland Auckland	4 years 4 years	Baptist Church	84/2941		9 December 1884	Rev. C. Whytock Baptist
616	9 December 1884	William Bougen Mary Ann Gurney	William Bougan Mary McGumery 💍 1884/3261 William Niven Mary Ann O'Hara 💍 1884/1062 William Neeve Mary Ann Allen 💍 1884/142 William Wright Mary Ann Norton 💍 1884/720 William Byron Mary Ann Attewell 💍 1885/963 William Reardon Mary Ann Harris 💍 1884/197 William Hurn Mary Ann Catharine Murphy 💍 1884/1419 William Hawkins Mary Ann Smith 💍 1884/3338	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	24 31	Auckland Auckland	18 months 2 years	Office of Regr of Marriages	84/2932		9 December 1882	Regr.
617	9 December 1884	Edward Chermside Sarah Elizabeth McBride	Edward Chermside Sarah Elizabeth McBride 💍 1884/3164	Bachelor Spinster	Coach maker	35 18	Albert St Albert St	3 months	Dwelling house of Wm Vicars	84/2881		14 December 1884	Rev. R. F. Macnicol Presbyterian
618	10 December 1884	Isaac Johnson Nellie Cox	Isaac Johnson Nellie Cox 💍 1884/3262	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	37 25	Tairua Auckland	3 months 9 years	Office of the Regr of Marriages	84/2953		10 December 1884	J. Owen Lord Regr.
619	10 December 1884	Harry Cockayne Small Catherine Brophy	Harry Cockayne Small Catherine Brophy 💍 1884/3254	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	23 26	Auckland Ellerslie	9 years 3 months	Roman Catholic Church	84/2948		10 December 1884	Rev. Jno. O. Hara Roman Catholic
620	10 December 1884	John Seaton Moffatt Isabella Halfpenny	John Seaton Moffatt Isabella Halfpenny 💍 1884/3162	Bachelor Spinster	Rope factory hand	23 22	Eden Terrace Onehunga	9 months 3 months	Dwelling of Thos. Hollinger	84/2819		10 December 1884	Rev. R. Somerville Presbyterian
621	10 December 1884	John Gordon Shackelford Edith Annie Shepherd	John Wisdom Shackelford Edith Annie Shepherd 💍 1884/3038	Bachelor Spinster	Hatter	24 18	Auckland Ponsonby	4 years 18 months	Dwelling of James Harris Jervois Road Ponsonby	84/2848	Annie Harris mother	10 December 1884	Rev. G. Wallis Presbyterian

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).