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 077

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 30 September 1884

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1904	10 August 1884	Adam Moore Charlotte Richardson	Adam Moore Charlotte Richardson 💍 1864/3838	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Laundress	44 45	Nelson Street, Auckland Nelson Street, Auckland	6 Months 8 Years	Nelson Street, Auckland	6 September 1884	Rev David Jones
1905	11 August 1884	Harrience Robertson Lydia Hancock	Lawrence Robertson Lydia Hancock 💍 1864/4179	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	31 22	Queen Street, Auckland Captain Cook Hotel	8 Years 6 Months	Church, Auckland	11 August 1884	Rev David Bruce
1906	12 August 1884	George Albert Fielding Sophia Seymour	George Albert Sophia Seymour 💍 1864/4271	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 22	Coburg Street, Auckland The Dwelling House of the, Rev. Thos. Hamer, Auckland	12 Years 12 Years	The Dwelling House of the, Rev. Thos. Hamer, Auckland	12 August 1884	Rev Thomas Hamer
1907	12 August 1884	Robert Sidney Hunt Mary Catherine O'Neill	Robert Sidney Hunt Mary Catherine O'Neill 💍 1864/8952	Bachelor Spinster	Lieut in Royal Navy	25 22	Auckland Auckland	1 Week 3 Years	St Matthews Church, Auckland	12 August 1884	Rev David Jones
1908	13 August 1884	William Elsmie Anderson Mary Bruce Mesbitt	William Elsmie Anderson Mary Bruce Nesbitt 💍 1864/4182	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	29 23	Hobson Street, Auckland Wm. Elsmie Anderson, Hobson St., Auckland	5 Months 2 Mos	The Dwelling House of, Wm. Elsmie Anderson, Hobson St., Auckland	13 August 1884	Rev [UNCLEAR]
1909	13 August 1884	Henry Peekham Margaret Kidd	Henry Peckham Margaret Hinsly 💍 1864/9332	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	29 26	Albert St, Auckland, Edward Street Auckland	12 Months 8 Years	St. Pauls Church, Auckland	13 August 1884	Rev David Jones
1910	13 August 1884	Thomas Brice Eliza Harriett Graham	Thomas Brice Eliza Harriet Graham 💍 1864/4268	Widower Spinster	Gentleman	44 38	Kenton Road Kenton Road, near Auckland	1 Year 1 Year	The Dwelling House of, Thomas Brice, Kenton Road, near Auckland	13 August 1884	Rev Thos Hamer

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 1899. 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).