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 083

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1865 Registrar John M Wayland

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

343

1 July 1865

William Arnold
Martha Pridget

William Arnold
Martha Pritchard
💍 1865/5273

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

33
36

Whau
Waterview

4 months
2 years

House of Wm. Arnold at the Whau

1 July 1865

Rev. Andrew Anderson

No	343
Date of Notice	1 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Arnold	Martha Pridget
BDM Match (81%)	William Arnold	Martha Pritchard
	💍 1865/5273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	33	36
Dwelling Place	Whau	Waterview
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	House of Wm. Arnold at the Whau
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	1 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Andrew Anderson

344

3 July 1865

William Best
Mary Mahony

William Best
Mary Mahony
💍 1865/5603

Bachelor
Spinster

Cook

32
21

Victoria Street Auckland
Barracks Street Auckland

1 year
13 years

House of Mr Hoggett Barracks Street Auckland

3 July 1865

Rev. A. Macdonald

No	344
Date of Notice	3 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Best	Mary Mahony
	💍 1865/5603
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cook
Age	32	21
Dwelling Place	Victoria Street Auckland	Barracks Street Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	13 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr Hoggett Barracks Street Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. A. Macdonald

345

3 July 1865

Charles Orlando Hill
Eliza Price

No corresponding marriage registration located.

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

23
18

Vincent Street, Auckland
Parnell

18 years
from birth

St Patricks Catholic Church Auckland

No	345
Date of Notice	3 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Orlando Hill	Eliza Price
	💍 No corresponding marriage registration located.
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	23	18
Dwelling Place	Vincent Street, Auckland	Parnell
Length of Residence	18 years	from birth
Marriage Place	St Patricks Catholic Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate
Officiating Minister

346

3 July 1865

Birtwell Sutcliffe
Susan Hastings

Birtwell Sutcliffe
Susan Hastings
💍 1865/5426

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

28
22

Wakefield Street Auckland
Newton

6 years
4 years

House of Birtwell Sutcliffe Newton

18 July 1865

Rev. W. Colley

No	346
Date of Notice	3 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Birtwell Sutcliffe	Susan Hastings
	💍 1865/5426
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	28	22
Dwelling Place	Wakefield Street Auckland	Newton
Length of Residence	6 years	4 years
Marriage Place	House of Birtwell Sutcliffe Newton
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	18 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. W. Colley

347

4 July 1865

Charles Goyder Gill
Catherine Ellen Robinson

Charles Goyder Hill
Catherine Ellen Robinson
💍 1865/4442

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

21
21

Newton
Victoria Street Auckland

1 month
2 years

House of Mr. Robinson, Victoria Street, Auckland

4 July 1865

Rev. P.H. Cornford

No	347
Date of Notice	4 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Goyder Gill	Catherine Ellen Robinson
BDM Match (97%)	Charles Goyder Hill	Catherine Ellen Robinson
	💍 1865/4442
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Newton	Victoria Street Auckland
Length of Residence	1 month	2 years
Marriage Place	House of Mr. Robinson, Victoria Street, Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. P.H. Cornford

348

4 July 1865

Charles Ludwig
Mary Gillard

Charles Ludwig
Mary Gillard
💍 1865/4670

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

29
21

Onehunga
Onehunga

2 years
5 months

Office of Registrar of Marriages Auckland

4 July 1865

Registrar of Marriages

No	348
Date of Notice	4 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Ludwig	Mary Gillard
	💍 1865/4670
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Onehunga	Onehunga
Length of Residence	2 years	5 months
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of Marriages Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).