1857 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840369, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 13 2024

Page 028

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1857

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

289

Last Quarter

James Burtt
Catherine Supple

James Burtt
Catherine Supple
💍 1857/1356

14 July 1857

Rev. B. G. Ashwell

No	289
Date of Notice	Last Quarter
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Burtt	Catherine Supple
	💍 1857/1356
Condition
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. G. Ashwell

300

Joseph Arthur Davis
Ann Elizabeth Coldicutt

Joseph Arthur Davis
Ann Elizabeth Coldicutt
💍 1857/1058

13 July 1857

Rev. J. F. Lloyd

No	300
Date of Notice
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Arthur Davis	Ann Elizabeth Coldicutt
	💍 1857/1058
Condition
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. F. Lloyd

301

Edward Martin
Mary Condron

Edward Marlin
Mary Elizabeth Condron
💍 1857/1207

9 July 1857

Rev. Walter Maclean

No	301
Date of Notice
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Martin	Mary Condron
BDM Match (73%)	Edward Marlin	Mary Elizabeth Condron
	💍 1857/1207
Condition
Profession
Age
Dwelling Place
Length of Residence
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Walter Maclean

305

2 July 1857

Latham Osborn
Marianne Stickley

Latham Osborn
Mariann Hicksey
💍 1857/1267

Bachelor
Spinster

Fruitman

27
28

Mount Street, Auckland
Mount Street, Auckland

4 months
4 months

2 July 1857

Rev. Thomas Hamer

No	305
Date of Notice	2 July 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Latham Osborn	Marianne Stickley
BDM Match (88%)	Latham Osborn	Mariann Hicksey
	💍 1857/1267
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Fruitman
Age	27	28
Dwelling Place	Mount Street, Auckland	Mount Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	4 months	4 months
Marriage Place
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Hamer

306

3 July 1857

John Ellis
Emma Palmer

John Ellis
Emma Palmer
💍 1857/1098

Bachelor
Widow

Timber Feller

42
37

Henderson's Bush
Auckland

3 and a half years
10 years

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

3 July 1857

Rev. David Jones

No	306
Date of Notice	3 July 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Ellis	Emma Palmer
	💍 1857/1098
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Timber Feller
Age	42	37
Dwelling Place	Henderson's Bush	Auckland
Length of Residence	3 and a half years	10 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Jones

307

14 July 1857

George Westfold
Elizabeth Boyt

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Spinster

Serjeant H. M. 58th Regt

31
17

Auckland
Grey Street, Auckland

8 years
2 years

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

1 August 1857

Rev. David Jones

No	307
Date of Notice	14 July 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Westfold	Elizabeth Boyt
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Serjeant H. M. 58th Regt
Age	31	17
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Grey Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	8 years	2 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 August 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Jones

308

14 July 1857

Donald Stuart
Anne McLeod

Donald Stewart
Ann McLeod
💍 1857/1418

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

22
25

Auckland
Auckland

1 Month
1 Month

Dwelling house of Norman McLeod, Coburg Street, Auckland

14 July 1857

Rev. David Bruce

No	308
Date of Notice	14 July 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Stuart	Anne McLeod
BDM Match (88%)	Donald Stewart	Ann McLeod
	💍 1857/1418
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	22	25
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	1 Month	1 Month
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Norman McLeod, Coburg Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).