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 061

District of Auckland Quarter ending Jan - Dec

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

2240

6 January 1865

Peter Ferdinand Martinson
Phoebe Wooderson

Peter Ferdinand Machinson
Phoebe Wooderson
💍 1865/4901

Bachelor
Spinster

Medical Dispenser

29
18

Onehunga
Onehunga

3 months
3 weeks

House of Rev. Geo. Brown

16 April 1865

Rev. Geo. Brown

No	2240
Date of Notice	6 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Ferdinand Martinson	Phoebe Wooderson
BDM Match (96%)	Peter Ferdinand Machinson	Phoebe Wooderson
	💍 1865/4901
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Medical Dispenser
Age	29	18
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	3 months	3 weeks
Marriage Place	House of Rev. Geo. Brown
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Geo. Brown

2241

4 April 1865

John Todd Stokes
Mary Ann Dieckson

John Todd Stokes
Mary Ann Dickson Gardner
💍 1865/4712

Bachelor
Spinster

Storeman

21
14

Grey Street, Auckland
Chapel Street, Auckland

3 days
6 years

St. Peters Church

Geo. Diner

7 April 1865

Rev. A.G. Purchas

No	2241
Date of Notice	4 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Todd Stokes	Mary Ann Dieckson
BDM Match (81%)	John Todd Stokes	Mary Ann Dickson Gardner
	💍 1865/4712
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storeman
Age	21	14
Dwelling Place	Grey Street, Auckland	Chapel Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	6 years
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church
Folio
Consent	Geo. Diner
Date of Certificate	7 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.G. Purchas

2242

8 April 1865

Alexander Charles Phillips Macdonald
Catherine Mary Williams

Alexander Charles Phipps Macdonald
Catherine Mary Williams
💍 1865/4847

Widower
Spinster

Chief Clerk Col. Sec. Office

30
25

Usually at Wellington Now Auckland
Remuera

4 days
8 years

St. Marks Church

8 April 1865

Rev. E.H. Heywood

No	2242
Date of Notice	8 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Charles Phillips Macdonald	Catherine Mary Williams
BDM Match (96%)	Alexander Charles Phipps Macdonald	Catherine Mary Williams
	💍 1865/4847
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Chief Clerk Col. Sec. Office
Age	30	25
Dwelling Place	Usually at Wellington Now Auckland	Remuera
Length of Residence	4 days	8 years
Marriage Place	St. Marks Church
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E.H. Heywood

2243

8 April 1865

Joseph Cobine
Janet Branks

Joseph Cobine
Janet Branks
💍 1865/5327

Bachelor
Spinster

Now Waikato Militia Man

21
22

Otahuhu
Otahuhu

1/2 years
6 mths

Church of England

8 April 1865

Rev. J. Gould

No	2243
Date of Notice	8 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Cobine	Janet Branks
	💍 1865/5327
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Now Waikato Militia Man
Age	21	22
Dwelling Place	Otahuhu	Otahuhu
Length of Residence	1/2 years	6 mths
Marriage Place	Church of England
Folio	7
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Gould

2244

8 April 1865

Charles Clayton
Christiana Mair

Charles Clayton
Christine Mair
💍 1865/5564

Bachelor
Spinster

Designer

24
20

Cook Street, Auckland
Wyndham Street Auckland

6 years
1/2 years

House of Mr Louson, Wyndham St, Auckland

8 April 1865

Rev. A. Macdonald

No	2244
Date of Notice	8 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Clayton	Christiana Mair
BDM Match (93%)	Charles Clayton	Christine Mair
	💍 1865/5564
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Designer
Age	24	20
Dwelling Place	Cook Street, Auckland	Wyndham Street Auckland
Length of Residence	6 years	1/2 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr Louson, Wyndham St, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Macdonald

2245

8 April 1865

Thomas Household Crosbie
Agnes Murray

Thomas Hunter Crosbie
Agnes Murray
💍 1865/4973

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
21

Cook Street Auckland
Cook Street Auckland

1/2 years
2 weeks

House of Rev. Jas. Hill

8 April 1865

No	2245
Date of Notice	8 April 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Household Crosbie	Agnes Murray
BDM Match (85%)	Thomas Hunter Crosbie	Agnes Murray
	💍 1865/4973
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Cook Street Auckland	Cook Street Auckland
Length of Residence	1/2 years	2 weeks
Marriage Place	House of Rev. Jas. Hill
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	8 April 1865
Officiating Minister

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 1903. 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).