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 15

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
81	30 July 1855	Robert Drut Elizabeth Burns	Robert Dent Elizabeth Burns 💍 1855/1480	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	19 years 3 months 20 years	Auckland Auckland	10 days 2 years	Wesleyan Chapel Auckland	Edward Slut, Father	20 August 1855	Rev. J. K. Fletcher
82	21 August 1855	William John White Rhoda Priscilla Pearce	William John White Rhoda Priscilla Pearce 💍 1855/1228	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 years 18 years	Howick Howick	8 years 6 years	All Saints Church Howick	Patrick Pence, Father	22 August 1855	Rev. P. Lund
83	25 August 1855	William Williams Amelia Overton	William Williams Amelia Overton 💍 1855/1752	Widower Widow	Merchant	45 years 27 years	Hobson Street, Auckland Fort Street, Auckland	14 years 1 year	St. Paul's Church Auckland		25 August 1855	Rev. P. Thatcher
84	1 September 1855	Charles Arnaboldi Anna Maria Debus	Charles Anabaldi Anna Maria Debus 💍 1855/1564	Bachelor Spinster	Optician	29 years 25 years	Princes Street, Auckland Princes Street, Auckland	4 years 7 years	Roman Catholic Church, Auckland		27 September 1855
85	13 September 1855	Thomas Douglas Marjory Sinclair	Thomas Douglas Margaret Sinclair 💍 1855/1213	Widower Spinster	Baker	42 years 32 years	Auckland Onehunga	8 years 7 years	Residence of Mrs. Briden Onehunga		19 September 1855	Rev. David Bruce
86	14 September 1855	William White Sarah Wilkinson	William White Sarah Mahearangi 💍 1855/1507	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	34 years 24 years	Auckland Auckland	4 days 4 days	Private Residence of Mr. Francis White West Queen Street Auckland		14 September 1855	Rev. John Whiteley
87	14 September 1855	Isaac Knight Rumbsy Margaret Ashby	Isaac Knights Hinsbey Margaret Ashby 💍 1855/1679	Bachelor Spinster	Policeman Gentlewoman	23 years 21 years	Auckland Auckland	6 months 6 months	St. Matthews Church, Auckland

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).