1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 059

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1865

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

2228

23 March 1865

John Pitcairn Stevenson
Sophia Frances James

John Pitcairn Stevenson
Sophia Frances James
💍 1865/4529

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

32
22

Hobson Street, Auckland
Hobson Street, Auckland

6 years
6 years

St Matthews Church, Auckland

23 March 1865

Rev. E. N. Bree

No	2228
Date of Notice	23 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Pitcairn Stevenson	Sophia Frances James
	💍 1865/4529
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	32	22
Dwelling Place	Hobson Street, Auckland	Hobson Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	6 years	6 years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. N. Bree

2229

25 March 1865

George Banman
Janet Brown

George Bannan
Janet Brown
💍 1865/4532

Bachelor
Spinster

Brickmaker
Dress maker

27
24

Spring Bank, Auckland
Queen Street, Auckland

10 months
10 days

St Matthews Church, Auckland

25 March 1865

Rev. E. N. Bree

No	2229
Date of Notice	25 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Banman	Janet Brown
BDM Match (96%)	George Bannan	Janet Brown
	💍 1865/4532
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Brickmaker	Dress maker
Age	27	24
Dwelling Place	Spring Bank, Auckland	Queen Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	10 months	10 days
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. N. Bree

2230

27 March 1865

George Moor
Emma Walters

George Moor
Emma Walters
💍 1865/4778

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

27
27

Great Barrier
Whau Road

5 years
16 years

The Wesleyan Chapel Whau Road

28 March 1865

Rev John Warren

No	2230
Date of Notice	27 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Moor	Emma Walters
	💍 1865/4778
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	27	27
Dwelling Place	Great Barrier	Whau Road
Length of Residence	5 years	16 years
Marriage Place	The Wesleyan Chapel Whau Road
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev John Warren

2231

28 March 1865

Wallace Carpenter Good
Ann Pickard

Wallace Carpenter Good
Annie Pickard
💍 1865/4068

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet-maker

Baker Street, Auckland

2 9/12 years

House of Wallace Carpenter Good, Baker Street, Auckland

28 March 1865

Rev Wm Colley

No	2231
Date of Notice	28 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Wallace Carpenter Good	Ann Pickard
BDM Match (92%)	Wallace Carpenter Good	Annie Pickard
	💍 1865/4068
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet-maker
Age	24
Dwelling Place	Baker Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	2 9/12 years
Marriage Place	House of Wallace Carpenter Good, Baker Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev Wm Colley

2232

28 March 1865

John Symons
Mary Mansefield Jearrad

John Symons
Mary M Jearrad
💍 1865/4535

Bachelor
Spinster

Accountant

31
23

Chapel Street, Auckland
Rutland Street, Auckland

6 years
20 years

St Marys Church, Parnell

28 March 1865

Rev. B. T Dudley

No	2232
Date of Notice	28 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Symons	Mary Mansefield Jearrad
BDM Match (80%)	John Symons	Mary M Jearrad
	💍 1865/4535
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Accountant
Age	31	23
Dwelling Place	Chapel Street, Auckland	Rutland Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	6 years	20 years
Marriage Place	St Marys Church, Parnell
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. T Dudley

2233

3 April 1865

John William Benbow
Grace Paul

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Widower
Spinster

Machine sewer

41
22

Wakefield Street, Auckland
Symonds Street, Auckland

5 years
9 years

House of John William Benbow, Wakefield Street, Auckland

3 April 1865

Rev. Wm. Colley

No	2233
Date of Notice	3 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John William Benbow	Grace Paul
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Machine sewer
Age	41	22
Dwelling Place	Wakefield Street, Auckland	Symonds Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	5 years	9 years
Marriage Place	House of John William Benbow, Wakefield Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Colley

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1908. 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).