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 055

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 30 June 1899

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

[1]772

12 April 1864

Alfred Neil
Eliza Graham

Alfred Neil
Eliza Graham
💍 1864/4813

Bachelor
Spinster

Boatman

27
20

Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland
Grafton Road

7 years
14 years

The dwelling house of Mr. Alfred Edwards, Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland

Alfred Neil, Bridegroom, in the absence from the Colony of any person with Authority to Consent

12 April 1864

Rev. Jas Hill

No	[1]772
Date of Notice	12 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alfred Neil	Eliza Graham
	💍 1864/4813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Boatman
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland	Grafton Road
Length of Residence	7 years	14 years
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of Mr. Alfred Edwards, Waterloo Quadrant, Auckland
Folio
Consent	Alfred Neil, Bridegroom, in the absence from the Colony of any person with Authority to Consent
Date of Certificate	12 April 1864
Officiating Minister	Rev. Jas Hill

[1]775

14 April 1864

Daniel Dee Hyde
Mary Elizabeth Denniss

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Widower
Spinster

Tinsmith

27
20

Onehunga
Onehunga

3 months
3 Months

The dwelling house of the Rev G. Brown at Onehunga

Daniel Dee Hyde, Bridegroom, in the absence from the Colony of any person with Authority to Consent

14 April 1864

Rev. G. Brown

No	[1]775
Date of Notice	14 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Daniel Dee Hyde	Mary Elizabeth Denniss
BDM Match (6%)
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Tinsmith
Age	27	20
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	3 months	3 Months
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of the Rev G. Brown at Onehunga
Folio
Consent	Daniel Dee Hyde, Bridegroom, in the absence from the Colony of any person with Authority to Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1864
Officiating Minister	Rev. G. Brown

[1]777

18 April 1864

Thomas Peek
Ellen Smith

Thomas Peek
Ellen Smith
💍 1864/8914

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

24
21

Otahuhu
Wakefield Street, Auckland

5 years
from Birth

St. Mathew's Church, Auckland

Rev D Jones

No	[1]777
Date of Notice	18 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Peek	Ellen Smith
	💍 1864/8914
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	24	21
Dwelling Place	Otahuhu	Wakefield Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	from Birth
Marriage Place	St. Mathew's Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister	Rev D Jones

1773

13 April 1864

Patrick Prendergrast
Catherine Potter

Patrick Predergrast
Catherine Potter
💍 1864/8742

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

25
25

Chapel Street, Auckland
Chapel Street, Auckland

2 months
10 months

St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Auckland

13 April 1864

Rev J McDonald

No	1773
Date of Notice	13 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Patrick Prendergrast	Catherine Potter
BDM Match (98%)	Patrick Predergrast	Catherine Potter
	💍 1864/8742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Chapel Street, Auckland	Chapel Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	2 months	10 months
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church in Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1864
Officiating Minister	Rev J McDonald

1774

14 April 1864

Roderick McGregor
Jane Kemp

Roderick McGregor
Jane Kemp
💍 1864/4804

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

34
22

Albert Street, Auckland
Newmarket

2 weeks
4 weeks

The dwelling house of Mrs Clydesdale at Newmarket

14 April 1864

Rev Jas Hill

No	1774
Date of Notice	14 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Roderick McGregor	Jane Kemp
	💍 1864/4804
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	34	22
Dwelling Place	Albert Street, Auckland	Newmarket
Length of Residence	2 weeks	4 weeks
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of Mrs Clydesdale at Newmarket
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 April 1864
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Hill

1776

18 April 1864

Edwin Monger
Ethel Sarah Burbridge

Edwin Monger
Esther Sarah Burbridge
💍 1864/4518

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

30
23

Parnell
Parnell

5 months
3 months

St. Mary's Church, Parnell

18 April 1864

Rev B. T. Dudley

No	1776
Date of Notice	18 April 1864
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edwin Monger	Ethel Sarah Burbridge
BDM Match (95%)	Edwin Monger	Esther Sarah Burbridge
	💍 1864/4518
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Parnell	Parnell
Length of Residence	5 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Church, Parnell
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 April 1864
Officiating Minister	Rev B. T. Dudley

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).