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 091

District of AUCKLAND Quarter ending 31 December 1892

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
1999	31 October 1892	Alfred Whitham Susan Ann Steele	Alfred Chitham Susan Ann Steel 💍 1864/4345	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Shoemaker	21 26	Wellesley Street Auckland Bath Street Parnell	21 years 15 years	The Dwelling house of John Steele Parnell	159/55	John Steele father	31 October 1892	Rev James Hill
2000	31 October 1892	William Adair Flora McKenzie	William Adair Flora McKenzie 💍 1864/4855	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 24	Abraham Street Auckland Almi Eden Mount Eden	1/2/20 22/11	The dwelling house of John Sheddan Auckland	121/45		31 October 1892	Rev James Hill
2001	31 October 1892	Richard George Clark Spence Martha Jane Tercoe	Richard George Clark Spence Martha Jane Vercoe 💍 1864/9356	Bachelor Spinster	Physician	26 16	Auckland Princes St Auckland	1 Week from birth from birth	St Pauls Church Auckland		Wm. Bryant Tercoe father	5 November 1892	Rev J Husted
2002	3 November 1892	Frederick Hampden Eyre Margaret Fitzgerald	Frederick Hampden Eyre Margaret Fitzgerald 💍 1864/4208	Bachelor Spinster	Tent Maker	25 24	Vulcan Lane Auckland Allen Road Auckland	22/11 22/11	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland	122/45		3 November 1892	Rev David Bruce
2003	3 November 1892	Daniel Wood Margaret Byrne	Daniel Wood Margaret Byrne 💍 1864/8859 Charles Edward Dod Margaret Byrne 💍 1864/8820	Bachelor Spinster	[UNCLEAR] Mariner	25 18	[UNCLEAR] Auckland	16/9/11	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church		by Authority	3 November 1892	Rev James McDonald
2004	4 November 1892	Thomas Taylor Eliza Jane Bell	Thomas Taylor Eliza Jane Bell 💍 1864/4199	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant	28 24	Auckland Auckland		St Andrews Presbyterian Church			4 November 1892	Rev David Bruce
2005	4 November 1892	Thomas Davey Mary Hill	Thomas Davey Mary Hill 💍 1864/9227	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 36	Dr Bassets Auckland [UNCLEAR]	3 Weeks	[UNCLEAR]			4 November 1892	Rev John Macky

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).