Intentions to Marry, 1859

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840371, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 12 2024

Page 051

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1859

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

643

12 September 1859

Andrew Otto
Mary Ann Isabel Clark

Andrew Otto
Mary Ann Isabel Clark
💍 1859/2394

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer

24
22

Wyndham Street
Union Street, Auckland

15 years
2 years

The dwelling house of Edw. Bartley Union St. Auckland

12 September 1859

Rev. Alex. Macdonald

No	643
Date of Notice	12 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Otto	Mary Ann Isabel Clark
	💍 1859/2394
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer
Age	24	22
Dwelling Place	Wyndham Street	Union Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	15 years	2 years
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of Edw. Bartley Union St. Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	12 September 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. Alex. Macdonald

644

13 September 1859

John Minipress
Mary Anne Bennelly

John Winepress
Mary Anne Donnelly
💍 1859/1400

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
15

Howick
Howick

4 years
10 years

Roman Catholic Church, Howick

Mary Ann Bennelly, mother

No	644
Date of Notice	13 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Minipress	Mary Anne Bennelly
BDM Match (87%)	John Winepress	Mary Anne Donnelly
	💍 1859/1400
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	15
Dwelling Place	Howick	Howick
Length of Residence	4 years	10 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Howick
Folio
Consent	Mary Ann Bennelly, mother
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

645

15 September 1859

Henry William Walker
Mary Anne Ogden

Henry William Walker
Mary Ann Ogden
💍 1859/2262

Bachelor
Spinster

Woolstapler

41
31

Onehunga
Onehunga

5 weeks
5 weeks

St. Matthews Church, Auckland

No	645
Date of Notice	15 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry William Walker	Mary Anne Ogden
BDM Match (97%)	Henry William Walker	Mary Ann Ogden
	💍 1859/2262
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Woolstapler
Age	41	31
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	5 weeks	5 weeks
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

646

17 September 1859

John Gorrie
Elizabeth Thomson Stewart

[No matching marriage found for this couple] Folio 59/33

Bachelor
Spinster

Teacher

39
25

Kyber Pass Road
Pitt Street, Auckland

14 years
12 months

The dwelling house of Mr. Gorrie, Pitt Street, Auckland

17 September 1859

Rev. David Bruce

No	646
Date of Notice	17 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Gorrie	Elizabeth Thomson Stewart
	💍 [No matching marriage found for this couple] Folio 59/33
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Teacher
Age	39	25
Dwelling Place	Kyber Pass Road	Pitt Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	14 years	12 months
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of Mr. Gorrie, Pitt Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 September 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce

647

27 September 1859

William Henry Williams
Helen Forbes

William Henry Williams
Helen Forbes
💍 1859/2490

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

19 1/2
21 1/2

Onehunga
Onehunga

7 years
15 years

St. Peters Church, Onehunga

Eliza Williams, mother

27 September 1859

Rev. A. G. Purchas

No	647
Date of Notice	27 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Williams	Helen Forbes
	💍 1859/2490
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	19 1/2	21 1/2
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	7 years	15 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Onehunga
Folio
Consent	Eliza Williams, mother
Date of Certificate	27 September 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. G. Purchas

648

28 September 1859

Laurence Moncrieff
Sarah Patison

Lawrence Moncrieff
Sarah Paterson
💍 1859/2349

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

27
19

Parnell
Parnell

8 years
7 years

St. Pauls Church, Auckland

No person is having authority

28 September 1859

Rev. J. F. Lloyd

No	648
Date of Notice	28 September 1859
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Laurence Moncrieff	Sarah Patison
BDM Match (90%)	Lawrence Moncrieff	Sarah Paterson
	💍 1859/2349
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Parnell	Parnell
Length of Residence	8 years	7 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent	No person is having authority
Date of Certificate	28 September 1859
Officiating Minister	Rev. 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 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).