Intentions to Marry, 1855

Reference: Alexander Turnbull Library fMS-194

This document only includes a partial set of Intention to Marry records for 1855, relating to the Auckland and Otago districts. Unlike the registers at Archives NZ, this document does not consist of the original returns sent to the Registrar, but a poor quality photocopy of the original returns.

Imaged by Luke at the Alexander Turnbull Library in December 2024.

Page 8

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1855

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
37	14 May 1855	Daniel Slater Elizabeth Jane Williams	Daniel Slater Elizabeth Jane Williams 💍 1855/1746	Bachelor Spinster	Serjeant 58th Regiment	26 years 22 years	Terrace, Auckland Auckland	7 years 5 days	St Paul's Church, Auckland		14 May 1855	Revd. F. Thatcher
38	2 May 1855	Terence McMurrer Marian Pippin	Terence McMurrer Maria Piggin 💍 1855/1471	Bachelor Widow	Shoemaker	25 years 28 years	Chancery Lane, Auckland Chancery Lane, Auckland	12 months 12 months	Wesleyan Chapel, Auckland		31 May 1855	Revd. J. H. Fletcher
39	7 May 1855	James Mullay Mary Jane Gallagher	James Molloy Mary Jane Gallagher 💍 1855/1651	Bachelor Spinster	Lance Sergeant 58th Regiment	27 years 17 years	Albert Barracks, Auckland Bowen Street, Auckland	3 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Church, Auckland	Finglo [UNCLEAR] Gallagher, Father	7 May 1855	Right Revd. Bishop Pompallier
40	9 May 1855	Edward Augustus Hamilton Elizabeth Stent	Edward Augustus Hamilton Elizabeth Hunt 💍 1855/1459	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 years 21 years	Auckland Auckland	3 days 3 days	Independent Chapel, Albert Street, Auckland		9 May 1855	Rev. T. Skinner
41	16 May 1855	Charles Stephenson Elizabeth Bell	Charles Stephenson Elizabeth Bell 💍 1855/2131	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 years 19 years	Remuera Remuera	12 months 18 months	St Mark's Church, Remuera	John Bell, Father	16 May 1855	Revd. G. A. H. St. Hill
42	17 May 1855	John Shorter Hester Greenwood	John Hooker Hope Greenwood 💍 1855/1468	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	23 years 22 years	Princes Street, Auckland Princes Street, Auckland	6 years 14 days	Wesleyan Chapel, Auckland		17 May 1855	Revd. J. H. Fletcher
43	19 May 1855	William Francis Ellen Armour	William Francis Ellen Armour 💍 1855/1749	Widower Widow	Labourer	38 years 40 years	Parnell Auckland	10 months 10 months	St Paul's Church, Auckland		2 June 1855	Revd. J. F. Lloyd

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).