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 089

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 December 1864

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1985	10 October 1864	Alexander Karkeek Eliza Frances Wiseman		Bachelor Spinster	Commander Royal Navy	30 23	Auckland Auckland	4 mths 1 year	St Paul's Church Auckland		20 October 1864	Rev J Kinder
1986	10 October 1864	Robert Smith Grace Kamberton	Robert Smith Grace Lamberton 💍 1864/4473	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 22	Auckland Auckland	6 mths 4 mths	Office of Registrar of Marriages Auckland		24 October 1864	Registrar
1987	21 October 1864	John McDonnell Margaret Brusnahan	John Turnbull Margaret Brusnahan 💍 1864/9224	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant	30 17	Otahuhu Otahuhu	3 Weeks 9 mths	Presbyterian Church Otahuhu	[UNCLEAR] Brusnahan Father	3 November 1864	John Macky
1988	22 October 1864	John Ragham Catherine Hallanan	John Roughoon Catherine Hallanan 💍 1864/8865	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	26 21	North Shore North Shore	1 week 1 Week	St Patricks Roman Catholic Auckland		5 November 1864	James McDonald
1989	22 October 1864	Serafin Fernandez Margaret Ferguson	Serafin Fernandes Margaret Ferguson 💍 1864/8826	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	26 17	Onehunga Onehunga	2 1/2 yrs 11 mths	The Roman Catholic Church at Onehunga	[UNCLEAR] Father	5 November 1864	James McDonald
1990	24 October 1864	George Wilson Jane Morrow	George Griffin Jane Morrow 💍 1864/9350	Widower Spinster	Farmer Servant	28 23	Auckland Auckland	2 1/2 yrs 2 yrs	St Paul's Church Auckland		24 October 1864	Rev J Kinder
1991	25 October 1864	Charles Bult Anna Jurnewell	Charles Batt Anna Turnwelt 💍 1864/8874	Bachelor Widow	Sawyer	38 37	Wainera Wera Hot Springs German Settlement	8 9/12 yrs 1 1/12 yrs	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Auckland		3 December 1864	James McDonald

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).