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 082

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 30 September 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
1939	10 September 1864	George Prior Mary Ann Wise formerly Sampson	George Prior Mary Ann Wise 💍 1864/4274	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper	42 50	Auckland Newton	2 Years 3 Years	the dwelling House of Mary Ann Wise Newton Road			September 1864	Rev Thos Hamer
1940	12 September 1864	James Hitzhatnick Elizabeth Smith	James Fitzpatrick Elizabeth Smith 💍 1864/9026	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant 14 Regt	23 21	Auckland Auckland	3 mths 4 days	Roman Catholic Church Parnell			September 1864	Res of Octavius Barsanti
1941	12 September 1864	Daniel Fagg Mary Kerr	Daniel Gough Mary Kerr 💍 1864/8781	Bachelor Spinster	Masterer Milliner	27 25	Hobson Street Auckland Queen Street Auckland	8 Years 9 Years	Chapel of the Right Rev Bishop Pompallier in Auckland			12 September 1864	Right Rev Bishop Pompallier
1942	14 September 1864	Louis Look Annie Adam Smith	Louis Cook McDermott Annie Adam Smith 💍 1864/9251	Bachelor Spinster	photographer Milliner	25 18	Hobson Street Auckland High Street Auckland	23 Yrs from birth	the dwelling House of Louis Look Hobson St	232/11	from High St Auckland	28 September 1864	Revd Alexr Macdonals
1943	14 September 1864	Richard Mannell Emily Money	Richard Maxwell Emily Money 💍 1864/8964	Bachelor Spinster	Ostler	19 17	Browers Lane Wakefield St Auckland Auckland	19 Yrs 16 Yrs	St Matthews Church Auckland	194/15	Elygbeth Money her mother	14 September 1864	Rev David Jones
1944	14 September 1864	Stewart Leckie Flourry Thomas Boyle	Stewart Leckie Margaret Boyle 💍 1864/9233	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 19	Hobson Street Auckland Otahuhu	3 mths	the dwelling House of Stew[UNCLEAR] Leckie	179/15	Thomas Boyle Father	14 September 1864	Rev John Macky
1945	17 September 1864	Francis Andrew Mary Watson	Francis Andrew Mary Watson 💍 1864/9230	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 17	Otahuhu Papatoetoe		The dwelling House of John Watson	89/15	John Watson Father	17 September 1864	Rev John Macky
1946	September 1864	John Filderhouse Mary Isabella Moss	John Childerhouse Mary Isabella Moss 💍 1864/9275	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	19 19	Howick Howick		All Saints Church Howick	199/15	no Consent recorded	1 October 1864	Rev V Lush

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).