Intentions to Marry, 1894

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840406, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025

Page 216

District of Buller 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
636	1 January 1884	Archibald Anthony Rigg Johanna Cecily Roche	Archibald Anthony Rigg Johanna Cecily Roche 💍 1894/726	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller Domestic Duties	29 22	Wellington Wellington	5 days 2 years	Westport Roman Catholic Church	94/547	22 January 1884	Thomas Halshe
637	2 January 1884	Ernest Hill Annie Jane Bland	Ernest Hill Annie Jane Blanc 💍 1894/706	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	24 18	Karamea Westport	3 weeks 2 months	Wellington Hotel	94/552	2 January 1884	N. A. Cox
638	13 January 1884	James Ahern Clara Costello	James Ahern Clara Costello 💍 1894/727	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner Domestic	23 23	Westport Westport	11 days 4 months	Westport Roman Catholic Church	94/548	13 January 1884	Thomas Halshe
639	23 January 1884	Henry Charles Stephen Bell Ellen Theresa Simpson	Henry Charles St John Bell Ellen Theresa Simpson 💍 1894/687	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	29 21	Westport Westport	21 years 3 years	Westport	94/549	23 January 1884	Thomas Halshe
640	27 January 1884	Alexander Mitchell Kate Priest	Alexander Mitchell Kate Buick 💍 1894/725	Widower Spinster	Miner Domestic	33 31	Denniston Denniston	2 years 1 year	Residence of Alexander Mitchell, Denniston, Westport	94/546	27 January 1884	W. Laycock
641	30 January 1884	John Bell Brown Hannah Mary	John Bell Brown Hannah May 💍 1894/709	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	25 21	Westport Westport	8 years 18 months	Residence of John Bell Brown	94/555	30 January 1884	John Hall
642	2 February 1884	John Solon Emma Blackburn	John Nolan Emma Blackburne 💍 1894/698	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	32 24	Mokihinui Karamea	7 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Church	94/550	2 February 1884	Thomas Halshe
643	6 February 1884	William Watson Ellen Hill	William Mason Elizabeth Annis Hill 💍 1894/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic	22 21	Haimanga Haimanga	9 months 1 month	Registrar's Office	94/522	6 February 1884	A. H. Registrar
644	14 February 1884	Abraham Orr Sarah Reas	Abraham Singer Sarah Reves 💍 1894/721	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker Domestic	24 20	Westport Westport	5 years 20 years	Registrar's Office	94/543	14 February 1884	A. H. Registrar
645	16 February 1884	Peter Roselli Florence Elizabeth Huber	Peter Roselli Florence Elizabeth Hudson 💍 1894/722	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	46 21	Sergeants Hill Sergeants Hill	2 years 5 years	Registrar's Office, Westport	94/544	16 February 1884	A. H. Registrar
646	17 February 1884	Alexander Thomas Louisa Josephine Peterkin		Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Domestic	28 20	Westport Westport	4 years 4 years	Westport	94/533	17 February 1884	N. A. Cox

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).