Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 090

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 December 1864

No	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
1992	26 October 1864	Henry Alexander Sophia Brown	Henry Alexander Sophia Brown 💍 1864/4107	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant Commissariat Staff	26 19	Panmure Panmure	3 1/2 years 1 1/2 year	Church of England		James Brown, father	26 October 1864	Rev. H Gould
1993	24 October 1864	James Farrell Catherine Dressmaker	James Farrell Catherine Devonport 💍 1864/4852	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 21	West Queen St, Auckland West Queen St, Auckland	16 years 2 years	In the dwelling house of William Pressman			27 October 1864	Rev. James Hill
1994	27 October 1864	James Newton Firth Catherine Jane Sinden	James Devenport Catherine Jane Sindon 💍 1864/8796	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	21 18	Chapel Hill, Auckland Hobson Street, Auckland	From Birth From Birth	Bishop Pompallier's		Catherine Sinden, Mother	27 October 1864	Right Revd Bishop Pompallier
1995	28 October 1864	George Augustus Davey Catherine Murphy	George Augustus Avey Catherine Murphy 💍 1864/8862	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Servant	25 20	Hobson Street, Auckland Wakefield St, Auckland	2 1/2 years 2 1/2 years	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church		Geo Augustus Davey, his writing & mark in presence of Walter Macdonald, having authority to give consent	28 October 1864	Rev Walter Macdonald
1996	29 October 1864	William Furner Sarah Furner	William Morgan Sarah Turner 💍 1864/9353	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler Milliner	27 24	Queen Street, Auckland Drake Street, Auckland	11 months 1 week	St Pauls Church			29 October 1864	Red [UNCLEAR] Lloyd
1997	29 October 1864	James Hamon Mary Bornell	James Cramond Mary Boswell 💍 1864/4277 James Palmer Mary Bagley 💍 1864/6559 James Boyd Mary Burns 💍 1864/6181	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 21	Newton Union Street, Auckland	6 mos From Birth	The dwelling house of Thomas Hamer, Karangahape Road	1997/16	Red Thomas Hamer	29 October 1864	[UNCLEAR]
1997	31 October 1864	Joseph Williams Jane Beaurmont	Joseph Williams Jane Beaumont 💍 1864/4708 John Williams Jane Mattison 💍 1864/4696	Widower Spinster	Corporal 43 Regt.	35 18	Auckland Victoria Quadrant, Auckland	10 mths 9 mths	The Primitive Methodist Chapel, Edwardes St, Auckland			14 November 1864	Rev P. [UNCLEAR]
1998	31 October 1864	John James Daniels Jessie Filkin	John James Daniels Lizzie Gilpin 💍 1864/4787	Widower Spinster	Sergeant 43 Regt. Infantry	29 19	Onehunga Onehunga	1 mth 6 mths	The Royal Hotel, Refreshment & Boarding House, Epsom Mills		Jn Daniels, his writing & mark in presence of [UNCLEAR], having authority to give consent	31 October 1864	Rev Jes Brown

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).