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 086

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

2391

15 July 1865

Charles Rowe
Shoehee Hollands

Charles Rowe
Phoebe Holland
💍 1865/4604

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

25
25

Newton
Newton

1½ years
3½ years

St Matthews Church

15 July 1865

Rev. E H Bree

No	2391
Date of Notice	15 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Rowe	Shoehee Hollands
BDM Match (88%)	Charles Rowe	Phoebe Holland
	💍 1865/4604
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	25	25
Dwelling Place	Newton	Newton
Length of Residence	1½ years	3½ years
Marriage Place	St Matthews Church
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E H Bree

2392

14 July 1865

John Summer
Sarah Maria Willetts

John Trimmer
Sarah Maria Willetts
💍 1865/4286

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

23
20

Parnell
Official Bay Auckland

18 yrs.
from birth

House of Joseph Senior Official Bay Auckland

14 July 1865

Rev. David Bruce

No	2392
Date of Notice	14 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Summer	Sarah Maria Willetts
BDM Match (88%)	John Trimmer	Sarah Maria Willetts
	💍 1865/4286
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	23	20
Dwelling Place	Parnell	Official Bay Auckland
Length of Residence	18 yrs.	from birth
Marriage Place	House of Joseph Senior Official Bay Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce

2393

14 July 1865

John Patrick Buckley
Ellen Lorigan
formerly Burke

John Patrick Buckley
Ellen Lorrigan
💍 1865/5162

Bachelor
Widow

Mason

25
35

Albert Street Auckland
Do

1½ years
20

Private Chapel Bishop Pompallier Auckland

14 July 1865

Right Rev. Bishop Pompallier

No	2393
Date of Notice	14 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Patrick Buckley	Ellen Lorigan formerly Burke
BDM Match (71%)	John Patrick Buckley	Ellen Lorrigan
	💍 1865/5162
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Mason
Age	25	35
Dwelling Place	Albert Street Auckland	Do
Length of Residence	1½ years	20
Marriage Place	Private Chapel Bishop Pompallier Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	14 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Right Rev. Bishop Pompallier

2394

15 July 1865

Benruf Henderson
Eliza Ann Bartley

Henry Henderson
Eliza McCarthy
💍 1865/4679

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

23
22

Honia
Onehunga

3 years
1 mths.

Office of Registrar of marriages Auckland

15 July 1865

Registrar of marriages

No	2394
Date of Notice	15 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Benruf Henderson	Eliza Ann Bartley
BDM Match (70%)	Henry Henderson	Eliza McCarthy
	💍 1865/4679
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Honia	Onehunga
Length of Residence	3 years	1 mths.
Marriage Place	Office of Registrar of marriages Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	15 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of marriages

2395

19 July 1865

Charles Collins
Martha Shaw

Charles Collins
Martha Shaw
💍 1865/4289

Bachelor
Spinster

Shoemaker

25
21

Freemans Bay Auckland
Cabbage Tree Swamp

2 years
from birth

House of Mr E Shaw Cabbage Tree Swamp

19 July 1865

Rev. David Bruce

No	2395
Date of Notice	19 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Collins	Martha Shaw
	💍 1865/4289
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shoemaker
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Freemans Bay Auckland	Cabbage Tree Swamp
Length of Residence	2 years	from birth
Marriage Place	House of Mr E Shaw Cabbage Tree Swamp
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce

2396

22 July 1865

Henry D Maley
Eliza Raison

Henry Dudley
Eliza Raison
💍 1865/4292

Bachelor
Spinster

Soldier Rl. Engr.
Servant

26
21

Auckland
Graham Street Auckland

1 year
1½ years

St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland

22 July 1865

Rev. D Bruce

No	2396
Date of Notice	22 July 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry D Maley	Eliza Raison
BDM Match (88%)	Henry Dudley	Eliza Raison
	💍 1865/4292
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soldier Rl. Engr.	Servant
Age	26	21
Dwelling Place	Auckland	Graham Street Auckland
Length of Residence	1 year	1½ years
Marriage Place	St Andrews Presbyterian Church Auckland
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 July 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. D Bruce

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).