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 1045

District of Quarter ending

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
474	30 September 1884	Thomas Eyre Back Emily Smallwood	Thomas Eyre Emily Smallwood 💍 1884/2559	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 31	Mangawaru Mangawaru	23 20	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	84/1984		30 September 1884	J Owen Lord Regr
475	30 September 1884	Robert Cook Back Ann Edgecombe	Robert Cook Ann Edgcombe 💍 1884/3160	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 36	Arch Hill Arch Hill	2 yrs 2 yrs	St Lukes Church	84/1284		30 September 1884	J Haselden Church of England
476	30 September 1884	James Young Hannah Lavinia Brown	James Young Hannah Lavinia Brown 💍 1884/3603	Bachelor Spinster	Busdriver	21 19	Auckland Panmure	8 yrs 19 yrs	Church of England	84/3621	William Brown father	30 September 1884	Rev F Could Ch of England
477	30 September 1884	Nathaniel Weston Ellen Charman	Nathaniel Weston Ellen Charman 💍 1884/2562	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	24 18	Auckland Onehunga	24 18	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	84/1986	Henry Charman father	30 September 1884	J Owen Lord Regr
478	30 September 1884	George Currie Charlotte Finley	George Currie Charlotte Finlay 💍 1884/2560	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Teacher	24 22	Waiuku Waiuku	24 16	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	84/1985		30 September 1884	J Owen Lord Regr
479	30 September 1884	Arthur Sidney Tonks Eliza Cudden Nolan	Arthur Sidney Tonks Eliza Cushla Nolan 💍 1884/3608	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	23 23	Hawera Ellerslie	18 mths 6 yrs	Church of England	84/3622		30 September 1884	Rev F Could Ch of England
480	30 September 1884	Charles Henry Holder Mehden Louisa Emily Sidolph	Charles Henry Vonder Mehden Louisa Emily Stidolph 💍 1884/1473	Bachelor Spinster	Musician	28 19	Auckland Auckland	14 days 14 days	St Pauls Church	84/2980	Edwin Sidolph father	30 September 1884	Rev C.M. Nelson Ch of England

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).