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 088

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 3 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
1979	1 October 1864	Alexander Fraser Jane McLeod	Alexander Fraser Jane McLeod 💍 1864/4849 Alexander Mitchelson Anne McLeod 💍 1864/3978 Braggins George Frederick Jane McLeod 💍 1864/4280	Bachelor Spinster	Drilling	28 24	Mechanics Bay Auckland Mechanics Bay Auckland	2 yrs 2 yrs	The Dwelling House of Miss Stanley Mechanics Bay Auckland	1272		28 October 1864	Rev James Hill
1980	17 October 1864	Thomas Jones Sarah Keefe	Thomas Jones Sarah Keefe 💍 1865/5624	Widower Spinster	Trader	32 34	Victoria Lane Auckland Wellesley Street Auckland	8 mths 4 yrs	Dwelling House in Wellesley St Auckland	1277		19 October 1864	Rev A. Macdonald
1981	17 October 1864	George Mann Joseph Jemima Elizabeth Dalton	George Joseph Mann Jemima Elizabeth Dalton 💍 1864/9014	Bachelor Spinster	Militia man	22 21	Penrose farm Waikato Otahuhu	6 mths 3 mths	The Church of England Otahuhu	1220		20 October 1864	[UNCLEAR]
1981	18 October 1864	Martin Ferguson Ellen Mason	Martin Ferguson Ellen Mason 💍 1864/8829	Bachelor Spinster	Soldier [UNCLEAR]	32 26	Albert Barracks Auckland Epsom	4 days 4 mths	The Roman Catholic Church Onehunga	1285		22 October 1864	[UNCLEAR]
1982	18 October 1864	Walter Brett Margaret Slater	Walter Brett Margaret Slater 💍 1864/4894	Bachelor Widow	Soldier 56 Regt	19 18	Otahuhu Otahuhu	8 mths 8 mths	The Church of England Otahuhu	1284	No Consent recorded	1 November 1864	Rev J Gould
1983	18 October 1864	Major James Tay [UNCLEAR] Butternorth		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	26 24	Parnell Parnell	5 yrs 4 yrs	St Stephens Chapel Parnell	1274		1 November 1864	Rev James [UNCLEAR]
1984	19 October 1864	Edwin Holloway Jane Duntur	Edwin Holloway Jane Dunbar McGuinness 💍 1864/4381	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Governess	26 25	Auckland Auckland	2 yrs 3 days	The Dwelling House of Mr & Mrs Gunners Hobson St Auckland	1279		19 October 1864	Rev J Gould

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).