Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 103

District of Auckland Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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

151

9 July 1872

John Law
Martha Crawford

John Law
Martha Heyworth
💍 1872/5355

Bachelor
Spinster

Officiating Minister

30
31

Cambridge Auckland
Braesford St. Auckland

5 days
18 months

The dwelling house of Rev. J. Hobbs

792

9 September 1872

Rev. J. Hobbs

No	151
Date of Notice	9 July 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Law	Martha Crawford
BDM Match (80%)	John Law	Martha Heyworth
	💍 1872/5355
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Officiating Minister
Age	30	31
Dwelling Place	Cambridge Auckland	Braesford St. Auckland
Length of Residence	5 days	18 months
Marriage Place	The dwelling house of Rev. J. Hobbs
Folio	792
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. Hobbs

152

10 September 1872

Pierce Lanigan
Mary Ann Ryan

Pierce Lanigan
Mary Ann Ryan
💍 1872/4299

Bachelor
Spinster

Contractor

29
24

Commercial Hotel Auckland
Albert Street Auckland

St. Patrick's Cathedral Auckland

882

10 September 1872

Rev. P.F. Mc Donald

No	152
Date of Notice	10 September 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Pierce Lanigan	Mary Ann Ryan
	💍 1872/4299
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Contractor
Age	29	24
Dwelling Place	Commercial Hotel Auckland	Albert Street Auckland
Length of Residence
Marriage Place	St. Patrick's Cathedral Auckland
Folio	882
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. P.F. Mc Donald

153

13 September 1872

Thomas Brown
Hannah Jones

Thomas Green
Hannah Jones
💍 1872/4068

Thomas Hodgkinson
Susannah Jones
💍 1873/6256

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer
Servant

21
16

Usually at Matakana Auckland
Bath Street, Parnell

3 days
16 years

Dwelling house of Mrs Jones

800

Ann Jones, mother

13 September 1872

Rev. David Bruce Parnell

No	153
Date of Notice	13 September 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Brown	Hannah Jones
BDM Match (88%)	Thomas Green	Hannah Jones
	💍 1872/4068
BDM Match (63%)	Thomas Hodgkinson	Susannah Jones
	💍 1873/6256
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer	Servant
Age	21	16
Dwelling Place	Usually at Matakana Auckland	Bath Street, Parnell
Length of Residence	3 days	16 years
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mrs Jones
Folio	800
Consent	Ann Jones, mother
Date of Certificate	13 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. David Bruce Parnell

154

16 September 1872

John Fox
Louisa Pickett

John Fox
Louisa Pickett
💍 1872/5840

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

27
19

Usually at Thames Auckland
Cook Street Auckland

3 days
7 months

Dwelling house of Rev. R.F. Macnicol

72/1410

16 September 1872

Rev. R.F. Macnicol

No	154
Date of Notice	16 September 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Fox	Louisa Pickett
	💍 1872/5840
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	27	19
Dwelling Place	Usually at Thames Auckland	Cook Street Auckland
Length of Residence	3 days	7 months
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Rev. R.F. Macnicol
Folio	72/1410
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. R.F. Macnicol

155

16 September 1872

George Elijah Rollerson
Catherine Ann Carlaw

George Elijah Rollerson
Catherine Ann Carlaw
💍 1872/5334

Bachelor
Spinster

Baker

23
22

Vincent Street Auckland
Vincent Street Auckland

4 months
1 year

Dwelling house of Mr. Carlaw Vincent Street Auckland

12/125

16 September 1872

Rev. J.T. Marlow Barnes

No	155
Date of Notice	16 September 1872
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Elijah Rollerson	Catherine Ann Carlaw
	💍 1872/5334
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Baker
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Vincent Street Auckland	Vincent Street Auckland
Length of Residence	4 months	1 year
Marriage Place	Dwelling house of Mr. Carlaw Vincent Street Auckland
Folio	12/125
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 September 1872
Officiating Minister	Rev. J.T. Marlow Barnes

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).