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 078

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
1911	13 August 1864	David Hughes Amelia Merchant	David Hughes Amelia Merchant 💍 1864/9329	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant, Waikato Ref	26 19	Penrose Onehunga	7 Months 5 Mos	St Paul's Church Auckland	13/55	by the order of his Honor the Superintendent of Auckland by authority of my letter of the 6 Instant No 672	13 August 1864	Rev S. Fitzgerard
1912	15 August 1864	Charles Dentle Rosa McDonald	Charles Devile Rosa McDonald 💍 1864/8775	Bachelor Spinster	Driver	23 16	Auckland Princes St Auckland	6 Mos 4 Years	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Auckland	39/55	Alexr McDonald Father	15 August 1864	Rev. Father Walter
1913	15 August 1864	Charles Edmon God Margaret Byrnes	Charles Edward Dod Margaret Byrne 💍 1864/8820	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 24	Hobsons St Auckland Auckland	2 Yrs	The Roman Catholic Church Onehunga	109/11		15 August 1864	Rev James Mc Donnell
1914	15 August 1864	Thomas Carroll Ann Sloan	Thomas Carroll Ann Sloan 💍 1864/8772	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Servant	25 26	Hobson Street Auckland Auckland	5 Yrs	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Auckland	149/55		15 August 1864	Rev James Mc Donnell
1915	16 August 1864	John Lennon Elizabeth Hart	John Leaning Elizabeth England 💍 1864/8943 John Nelson Elizabeth Jane Arkle 💍 1864/6993 John London Hatswell Elizabeth Fort 💍 1864/4822 John Gallon Elizabeth Meadowcroft 💍 1864/5424 John Garden Elizabeth Burnett 💍 1865/9100 John Croucher Elizabeth Jary 💍 1864/8037 John Jackson Elizabeth Mary Rich 💍 1864/8961	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 18	Shortland St Auckland Victoria St Auckland	1 Year 3 Yrs	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland	30/11	David Hart Father	16 August 1864	Rev James Hill
1916	17 August 1864	James Harper Amelia Somes	James Harper Amelia Ann Miller 💍 1864/4185	Widower Widow	Engineer	40 30	Auckland Auckland	3 Weeks	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland	37/11		17 August 1864	Rev David Bruce
1917	18 August 1864	Abraham Bennett Mary Gray		Widower Widow	Trader	44 28	Auckland North Shore Auckland	2 Weeks	The Wesleyan Methodist Chapel in High St Auckland	7/15		18 August 1864	Rev Thos Buddle

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).