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 066

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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

2270

1 May 1865

Charles Cheverton
Kate Watson

Charles Cheverton
Kate Ann Watson
💍 1865/4040

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier Royal Eng
Servant

27
21

Albert Barracks Auckland
St Johns College Auckland

8 mths
5 mths

the Chapel St Johns College Auckland

1 May 1865

Rev S. Blackburn

No	2270
Date of Notice	1 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Cheverton	Kate Watson
BDM Match (87%)	Charles Cheverton	Kate Ann Watson
	💍 1865/4040
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier Royal Eng	Servant
Age	27	21
Dwelling Place	Albert Barracks Auckland	St Johns College Auckland
Length of Residence	8 mths	5 mths
Marriage Place	the Chapel St Johns College Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev S. Blackburn

2271

1 May 1865

Thomas Smith
Half-caste
Dorothy Tapsell
half-caste

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

21
20

Usually at Tairua in Auckland
Usually at Tairua in Auckland

3 days
3 days

St Patricks Roman Catholic Church, Auckland

Philip Tapsell, Father

1 May 1865

Very Rev Jas Mac Donald

No	2271
Date of Notice	1 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Smith Half-caste	Dorothy Tapsell half-caste
BDM Match (8%)
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	21	20
Dwelling Place	Usually at Tairua in Auckland	Usually at Tairua in Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church, Auckland
Folio
Consent	Philip Tapsell, Father
Date of Certificate	1 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Very Rev Jas Mac Donald

2272

1 May 1865

George Coulam
Mary Hannah Taylor

George Coulam
Mary Hannah Taylor
💍 1865/4427

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Servant

31
26

Grey Street Auckland
Pitt Street Auckland

3 1/2 years
1 1/2 years

House of Mr Coulam Grey Street Auckland

1 May 1865

Rev P.H. Cornford

No	2272
Date of Notice	1 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Coulam	Mary Hannah Taylor
	💍 1865/4427
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Servant
Age	31	26
Dwelling Place	Grey Street Auckland	Pitt Street Auckland
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr Coulam Grey Street Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev P.H. Cornford

2273

2 May 1865

Robert Armiger
Sarah Spickernell

Robert Armiger
Sarah Spickernell
💍 1865/5570

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

28
23

Cook Street Auckland
St Marys Road Auckland

2 years
3 years

House of John Armiger Cook Street Auckland

2 May 1865

Rev A Macdonald

No	2273
Date of Notice	2 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Armiger	Sarah Spickernell
	💍 1865/5570
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	28	23
Dwelling Place	Cook Street Auckland	St Marys Road Auckland
Length of Residence	2 years	3 years
Marriage Place	House of John Armiger Cook Street Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev A Macdonald

2274

4 May 1865

John Smith
Jessie Erskine

John Smith
Jessie Erskine
💍 1865/4979

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

36
26

Union Street Auckland
Union Street Auckland

2 mths
2 mths

House of Rev Jas Hill Auckland

4 May 1865

Rev Jas Hill

No	2274
Date of Notice	4 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Smith	Jessie Erskine
	💍 1865/4979
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	36	26
Dwelling Place	Union Street Auckland	Union Street Auckland
Length of Residence	2 mths	2 mths
Marriage Place	House of Rev Jas Hill Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev Jas Hill

2275

3 May 1865

John Wynn
Ellen Grant

John Wynn
Ellen Grant
💍 1865/9637

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier 70th Regt

30
23

Auckland
Bank St, Auckland

4 years
4 years

St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Auckland

3 May 1865

Very Rev Jas McDonald

No	2275
Date of Notice	3 May 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Wynn	Ellen Grant
	💍 1865/9637
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier 70th Regt
Age	30	23
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Bank St, Auckland
Length of Residence	4 years	4 years
Marriage Place	St Patricks Roman Catholic Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 May 1865
Officiating Minister	Very Rev Jas McDonald

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).