Intentions to Marry, 1860

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840372, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 003

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1860

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

709

6 January 1860

Anthony Mullins
Catherine Florence Wallis

Anthony Mullins
Catherine Florence Wallis
💍 1860/2162

Bachelor
Spinster

Musician
Domestic Servant

29
20

Chapel Street Auckland
Hobson Street Auckland

15 years
2 years

Roman Catholic Church Auckland

No person is having authority

21 January 1860

Very Rev. Jas. McDonald

No	709
Date of Notice	6 January 1860
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Anthony Mullins	Catherine Florence Wallis
	💍 1860/2162
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Musician	Domestic Servant
Age	29	20
Dwelling Place	Chapel Street Auckland	Hobson Street Auckland
Length of Residence	15 years	2 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Auckland
Folio
Consent	No person is having authority
Date of Certificate	21 January 1860
Officiating Minister	Very Rev. Jas. McDonald

710

7 January 1860

William Mitchell
Mary Ann Rebecca Gresson

William Mitchell
Mary Ann Rebecca Gresson
💍 1860/2171

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawyer

32
27

Smales Point Auckland
Smales Point Auckland

10 years
8 years

St. Matthews Church Auckland

21 January 1860

Rev. David Jones

No	710
Date of Notice	7 January 1860
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Mitchell	Mary Ann Rebecca Gresson
	💍 1860/2171
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawyer
Age	32	27
Dwelling Place	Smales Point Auckland	Smales Point Auckland
Length of Residence	10 years	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Matthews Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1860
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Jones

711

9 January 1860

Edward Earle
Bridget Munkes

Edward Earl
Bridget Monks
💍 1860/2209

Widower
Spinster

Constable

34
29

Onehunga
Onehunga

9 years
7 months

Roman Catholic Chapel Onehunga

9 January 1860

Rev. H. J. Paul

No	711
Date of Notice	9 January 1860
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Earle	Bridget Munkes
BDM Match (89%)	Edward Earl	Bridget Monks
	💍 1860/2209
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Constable
Age	34	29
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	9 years	7 months
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Chapel Onehunga
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 January 1860
Officiating Minister	Rev. H. J. Paul

712

10 January 1860

Henry James Portingall
Sarah Codd

[It appears no certificate was issued]

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

31
19

Chancery Street Auckland
Chancery Street Auckland

12 years
9 years

St. Pauls Church Auckland

No	712
Date of Notice	10 January 1860
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry James Portingall	Sarah Codd
	💍 [It appears no certificate was issued]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	31	19
Dwelling Place	Chancery Street Auckland	Chancery Street Auckland
Length of Residence	12 years	9 years
Marriage Place	St. Pauls Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

713

11 January 1860

Ralph Blundell
Margaret Stewart Brown

[It appears no certificate was issued]

Bachelor
Spinster

Dentist
Late Stewardess on board the "Shalimar"

24
21

Auckland
Auckland

2 months
3 weeks

Roman Catholic Church Auckland

No	713
Date of Notice	11 January 1860
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Ralph Blundell	Margaret Stewart Brown
	💍 [It appears no certificate was issued]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Dentist	Late Stewardess on board the "Shalimar"
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Auckland
Length of Residence	2 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

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).