1862 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840374, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 11 2024

Page 008

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1862

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

1161

20 February 1862

Leonard Lincoln
Mary Anne Smith

Henry Potter
Mary Ann Smith
💍 1863/7424

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Dressmaker

25
18

Makepila St, Auckland
Makepila Street Auckland

3 years
5 years

St Matthews Church, Auckland

Anne Smith, Mother

1 March 1862

Rev. R. J. Fynes

No	1161
Date of Notice	20 February 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Leonard Lincoln	Mary Anne Smith
BDM Match (60%)	Henry Potter	Mary Ann Smith
	💍 1863/7424
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Dressmaker
Age	25	18
Dwelling Place	Makepila St, Auckland	Makepila Street Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	5 years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent	Anne Smith, Mother
Date of Certificate	1 March 1862
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Fynes

1162

20 February 1862

George Cooper
Mary Dunbar

George Cooper
Mary Dunbar
💍 1862/2140

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

23
18

Howick
Howick

12 months
16 years

Roman Catholic Church, Howick

William Dunbar, Father

1 March 1862

Rev. R. J. Fynes

No	1162
Date of Notice	20 February 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Cooper	Mary Dunbar
	💍 1862/2140
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Howick	Howick
Length of Residence	12 months	16 years
Marriage Place	Roman Catholic Church, Howick
Folio
Consent	William Dunbar, Father
Date of Certificate	1 March 1862
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. J. Fynes

1163

21 February 1862

John Autridge
Elizabeth Williams

John Autridge
Elizabeth Williams
💍 1862/4810

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Servant

28
23

Usually in Taranaki - in Auckland
The Residence of Mr Burnside - in Auckland

3 wjs
13 years

The dwelling house of William Williams,mason off Queen St. Auckland

4 March 1862

Rev. Thos. Hamer

No	1163
Date of Notice	21 February 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Autridge	Elizabeth Williams
	💍 1862/4810
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Servant
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Usually in Taranaki - in Auckland	The Residence of Mr Burnside - in Auckland
Length of Residence	3 wjs	13 years
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of William Williams,mason off Queen St. Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 March 1862
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thos. Hamer

1164

24 February 1862

Norman McDonald
Margaret Morrison

Norman McDonald
Margaret Morrison
💍 1862/2458

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Servant

22
22

Usually at Waipu - in Auckland
Shortland Crescent Auckland

no dwelling 4 days
1 year

House of Mr. McDonald, Brewer, in Auckland

24 March 1862

Rev. David Bruce

No	1164
Date of Notice	24 February 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Norman McDonald	Margaret Morrison
	💍 1862/2458
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Servant
Age	22	22
Dwelling Place	Usually at Waipu - in Auckland	Shortland Crescent Auckland
Length of Residence	no dwelling 4 days	1 year
Marriage Place	House of Mr. McDonald, Brewer, in Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 March 1862
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce

1165

27 February 1862

Henry Woodward Williams
Anne Rose

Henry Woodward Williams
Anne Rose
💍 1862/4625

Bachelor
Spinster

Assisting H.M. Customs

25
16

Cox's Creek, W. Auckland
Drake St. Auckland

2 years
14 years

No dwelling House of Charles Rose, Albert St. Auckland

27 March 1862

Rev. Isaac Harding

No	1165
Date of Notice	27 February 1862
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Woodward Williams	Anne Rose
	💍 1862/4625
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Assisting H.M. Customs
Age	25	16
Dwelling Place	Cox's Creek, W. Auckland	Drake St. Auckland
Length of Residence	2 years	14 years
Marriage Place	No dwelling House of Charles Rose, Albert St. Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 March 1862
Officiating Minister	Rev. Isaac Harding

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).