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 1083

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
240	16 May 1884	William Obedy Margaret Jane Hally	William Healy Margaret Jane Skelly 💍 1884/2061 William Boggs Margaret Jane Doak 💍 1884/1108 William Walsh Margaret Jane Pennial 💍 1885/280 William Green Margaret Ann Doolan 💍 1884/2188 William Hunter Margaret Jane Musgrave 💍 1885/171 William Henry Munro Margaret Jane Costello 💍 1884/1299	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	21+ 21	Shakespeare Hotel Auckland	2 years 3 weeks	St Patricks Church Auckland	84/965		16 May 1884	Revd W Macdonald
241	16 May 1884	Robert Benjamin Preshtt Sarah Ann Hardy	Robert Benjamin Nesbitt Sarah Ann Hardy 💍 1884/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Dressmaker	21 19	Newton 12 Edinburgh St	21 years	Dwelling of Mr Robert Hardy	84/915	Father	16 May 1884	Revd W S Potter
242	16 May 1884	William Swain Williams Mary Ann Ball	William Swain Williams Mary Ann Lydia Ball 💍 1884/2009	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 19	Newton Hobson Street	4 [illegible] 3 [illegible]	Dwelling of Mr A D Ball	84/941	Mother	16 May 1884	Revd G A Brown
243	16 May 1884	James Muir Barr Cecilia Williamson Stevenson	James Muir Barr Cecilia Williamson Stevenson 💍 1884/2006	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 20	Onehunga Hillsborough	17 [illegible] 20 [illegible]	Dwelling of Mr Williamson	84/938	Father	16 May 1884	Revd J Bruce
244	19 May 1884	William Samuel Evans Louisa Caroline Pooley	William Samuel Evans Louisa Caroline Pooley 💍 1884/2516	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 19	Coromandel Ponsonby	8 [illegible] 19 [illegible]	All Saints Church	84/1487	Father	19 May 1884	Revd W Calder
245	19 May 1884	George Henry Onion Annie Lake	George Henry Onion Annie Lake 💍 1884/2062	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	25 27	Auckland Auckland	3 [illegible] 27 [illegible]	St Patricks Cathedral	84/966		19 May 1884	Revd W Macdonald
246	20 May 1884	Stephen Townsend Mary Gaulland	Stephen Townsend Mary Gartland 💍 1884/825	Bachelor Spinster	Butler	32 31	Auckland Auckland	3 mos 2 mos	St Pauls Church	84/954		20 May 1884	Revd C M Nelson

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).