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 1025

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
601	2 December 1884	Patrick Coleman Sarah Catherine Lindsay	Patrick Coleman Sarah Catherine Lindsay 💍 1884/1733	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 23	Auckland Auckland	8 months 3 years	St. Patrick's Cathedral	84/3684	2 December 1884	Rev. J. Macdonald
602	3 December 1884	Richard Waring Mary Elizabeth Eaves	Richard Waring Mary Elizabeth Eaves 💍 1884/741	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 21	Newton Newton	7 years 4 years	Dwelling of Mr. Waring, Edwin St.	84/3828	3 December 1884	Rev. W. Rice, Baptist
603	3 December 1884	James Delahaye Mary Ann McGee	James Delaheye Mary Ann McGee 💍 1884/3249	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	54 34	Jail Road Auckland	9 months 6 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages	84/2924	3 December 1884	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
604	3 December 1884	James Hanley Louisa Basham	James Hanley Louies Basham 💍 1884/3194	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 22	Richmond Road Richmond Road	19 years 6 months	Dwelling of John Hanley, Ponsonby	84/2963	3 December 1884	Rev. J. Robertson, Congregational Independent
605	4 December 1884	James Hill Annie Amelia Courtney	James Hill Annie Amelia Dowsing 💍 1884/3324 James Hill Jessie Robertson 💍 1884/1942	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 24	Mt. Eden Auckland	2 years 2 years	Dwelling of John Maxwell, Richmond Road	84/3176	4 December 1884	Rev. R. J. Macnicol, Presbyterian
606	5 December 1884	Thomas Lovell White Alice King	Thomas Lovell White Alice King 💍 1884/3108 John Maguire Alice King 💍 1884/3523	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	34 25	Auckland Auckland	33 years 8 years	Dwelling of Saml. Jas. White, Birkenhead	84/2861	5 December 1884	Rev. A. Reid, Wesleyan
607	5 December 1884	Alfred Collins Sarah Jane Green	Alfred Collins Sarah Jane Green 💍 1884/3111	Widower Spinster	Bricklayer	31 24	Ponsonby Auckland	5 years 20 years	Dwelling of John Wesley, Remuera	84/2873	5 December 1884	Rev. C. Carter, Baptist

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).