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 075

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
1890	23 July 1864	William Graham Maria Rossiter	William Graham Maria Rossiter 💍 1864/4986	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 19	Vincent St Auckland Vincent St Auckland	4 Months 1 Month	St Matthews Church Auckland		Inanga Rossiter Mother	6 August 1864	Rev David Jones
1891	25 July 1864	Thomas Adams Mary Paterson	Thomas Adam Mary Paterson 💍 1864/9236	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 32	Flat Bush Papatoetoe Otahuhu		The dwelling House of Mr James Wallace Otahuhu.	69/11		13 August 1864	Rev David Jones
1892	26 July 1864	William Matthews Mary Ann Wilkes	William Matthews Mary Ann Wilks 💍 1864/8955	Bach Spinster	Driver Royal Artillery	24 22	Albert Barracks Auckland Officers Bay Auckland	3 Yrs 18 Mos	St Matthews Church Auckland	54/15		26 July 1864	Rev Joseph Long
1893	26 July 1864	William Auckland Hannah Beggsley	William Ackland Hannah McGinley 💍 1864/4683	Bach Spinster	Storeman	26 22	Barrack St Auckland Barrack St Auckland	1 Yr 10 Ms	The Primitive Methodist Church Edwardes St Auckland	22/15	Ann Beggsley Mother from birth	28 July 1864	Rev Joseph Long
1894	28 July 1864	John Wright Elizabeth Amy Fox	John Wright Elizabeth Ann Cox 💍 1864/8946	Bachelor Spinster	Groom & Coachman	23 18	Victoria Street Auckland Hobson Street Auckland	2 Yrs 10 Yrs	St Matthews Church Auckland	129/15	Robert Fox father	29 July 1864	Rev David Jones
1895	29 July 1864	James Wilson formerly Kendrick Jane Gale		Widower Spinster		23 24	Newton Newton	2 Yrs 12 Yrs	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland	2/45		29 July 1864	Rev John Macky
1896	29 July 1864	Frederick Ring Elizabeth Ann Kirkwood	Frederick Ring Elizabeth Lamont Kirkwood 💍 1864/4047	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	41 24	Auckland Auckland	11 Years 5 Years	The Dwelling House of Mr W Kirkwood Grafton Rd Auckland	12/4/15		29 July 1864	Rev David Jones

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).