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 082

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

22364

28 June 1865

James Stichbury
Mary Amelia Kerrens

James Stichbury
Mary Amelia Kerrens
💍 1865/4175

Bachelor
Spinster

Storekeeper

21
26

Queen Street, Auckland
Onehunga

3 1/2 years
2 1/2 years

Catholic Church, Onehunga

28 June 1865

Rev. James Paul

No	22364
Date of Notice	28 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Stichbury	Mary Amelia Kerrens
	💍 1865/4175
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Storekeeper
Age	21	26
Dwelling Place	Queen Street, Auckland	Onehunga
Length of Residence	3 1/2 years	2 1/2 years
Marriage Place	Catholic Church, Onehunga
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Paul

22368

28 June 1865

Joseph Govan
Isabella Dewar

Joseph Govan
Isabella Dewar
💍 1865/5552

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

25
21

Drake Street, Auckland
Otahuhu

6 mths
6 mths

House of Robert Robertson, Farmer, Otahuhu

28 June 1865

Rev. John Macky

No	22368
Date of Notice	28 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Govan	Isabella Dewar
	💍 1865/5552
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Drake Street, Auckland	Otahuhu
Length of Residence	6 mths	6 mths
Marriage Place	House of Robert Robertson, Farmer, Otahuhu
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Macky

22369

28 June 1865

Charles Byatt
Lydia Fitch

Charles Byatt
Lydia Fitch
💍 1865/4439

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

31
31

Collingwood St, Auckland
Union Street, Auckland

3 years
4 days

House of Mr. W Prisne, Union Street, Auckland

28 June 1865

Rev. P H Cornford

No	22369
Date of Notice	28 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Byatt	Lydia Fitch
	💍 1865/4439
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	31	31
Dwelling Place	Collingwood St, Auckland	Union Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	4 days
Marriage Place	House of Mr. W Prisne, Union Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 June 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. P H Cornford

22370

30 June 1865

William Tapp
Sarah McCutcheon

William Tapp
Sarah McCutcheon
💍 1865/4721

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

19
17

Onehunga
Onehunga

16 years
from birth

St. Peters Church of England, Onehunga

Mr Mark Tapp father A G Purchas, Guardian

30 June 1865

Rev. A.G. Purchas

No	22370
Date of Notice	30 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Tapp	Sarah McCutcheon
	💍 1865/4721
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	19	17
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	16 years	from birth
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church of England, Onehunga
Folio
Consent	Mr Mark Tapp father A G Purchas, Guardian
Date of Certificate	30 June 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.G. Purchas

22371

30 June 1865

George Ivil
Jane Jordan

George Ivil
Jane Jordan
💍 1865/4724

Bachelor
Spinster

Barber
Servant

21
19

Wyndham Street Auckland
Wakefield Street, Auckland

7 months
3 months

St. Peters Church, Onehunga

Mr Wm Jordan, father

21 July 1865

Rev. A.G. Purchas

No	22371
Date of Notice	30 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Ivil	Jane Jordan
	💍 1865/4724
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Barber	Servant
Age	21	19
Dwelling Place	Wyndham Street Auckland	Wakefield Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	7 months	3 months
Marriage Place	St. Peters Church, Onehunga
Folio
Consent	Mr Wm Jordan, father
Date of Certificate	21 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. A.G. Purchas

22372

24 June 1865

Henry Heath
Anna Hill

Henry Heath
Anna Hill
💍 1865/4802

Bachelor
Spinster

Tuner

34
17

Shortland Street, Auckland
Shortland Street, Auckland

3 years
2 mths

Wesleyan Chapel High Street, Auckland

Emma Freeson, mother

8 July 1865

Rev. Thomas Buddle

No	22372
Date of Notice	24 June 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Heath	Anna Hill
	💍 1865/4802
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tuner
Age	34	17
Dwelling Place	Shortland Street, Auckland	Shortland Street, Auckland
Length of Residence	3 years	2 mths
Marriage Place	Wesleyan Chapel High Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent	Emma Freeson, mother
Date of Certificate	8 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Buddle

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).