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 074

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
1883	19 July 1864	James Eyre Ellen Kinley	James Parr Ellen Scanlan 💍 1865/8330	Widower Spinster	Millwright	34 35	Parnell Parnell	6 Mos 3 days at Parnell	the dwelling House of James Eyre at Parnell			2 August 1864	Rev James Wallis
1884	20 July 1864	William Kniff Clark Elisabeth Susan Somewille	William Kribb Clark Elizabeth Susan Somerville 💍 1864/4369	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 17	Waiteki Auckland		The dwelling House of Robert wears from whose House in Victoria St Auckland		Thomas Somewille Father	20 July 1864	Rev J Thompson
1885	21 July 1864	Thomas Jardine Barrett Margaret Mcdonald	Thomas Jardine Margaret Mitchell 💍 1864/4032	Barman Spinster	Cook	21 26	Metropolitan Hotel Auckland Metropolitan Hotel Auckland		4 Mord Andrews St Presbyterian Church Auckland			21 July 1864	Rev. David Bruce
1886	22 July 1864	Thomas Simon Baskett Sarah Ann Rumbold	Thomas Simon Sarah Ann Rumbold 💍 1864/4680	Waterman Spinster	Domestic Servant	23 19	Moses St Auckland Edwardes St Auckland	7 yrs 5 yrs	The Primitive methodist Chapel in Edwardes St Auckland			22 July 1864	Rev Joseph Long
1887	22 July 1864	John Burns Ellen Mahony	John Burns Ellen Mahoney 💍 1864/4677	Bachelor Widow	Shoemaker	23 24	Goulburns Buildings Auckland Edwardes St Auckland	5 Yrs 9 Yrs	The Primitive methodist Chapel in Edwardes St Auckland	59/11	any with authority to consent	22 July 1864	Rev Joseph Long
1888	22 July 1864	Joseph Cunningham Annie My Elizabeth Witherden	Joseph Cunningham Annie Elizabeth Witherden 💍 1864/8769	Widower Spinster	Clerk R.M. Court	35 19	Dedwood near Auckland Newton near Auckland	10 Yrs 2 Mos	Smalliews Church Auckland and the Private Chapel of the Right Revd. Bishop Pompallier Auckland	102/41	Mary Byers mother	22 July 1864	Rev David Jones The Right Revd. Bishop Pompallier
1889	23 July 1864	George Henry Fletcher Mabel Potts	George Henry Fletcher Mabel Potts 💍 1864/3928	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	23 18	Ponsonby Road Auckland Remuera	3½ Yrs 2 Yrs	St Marks Church Remuera	3/29/15	Robert Potts Father	23 July 1864	Rev H HeyWood

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).