Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 076

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1875

No	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
94	22 March 1875	Daniel Ferguson Ann McNiven	Daniel Ferguson Ann McNiven 💍 1875/356	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Dairy-maid	26 21	Auckland Auckland	3 days 3 days	Dwelling house of Revd. David Bruce, Auckland	75/376		22 March 1875	Revd. David Bruce
95	23 March 1875	William McDonald Isabella Fraser	William McDonald Isabella Fraser 💍 1875/361	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 23	Auckland Auckland	23 yrs. 16 yrs.	St. Andrews Church, Auckland	75/378		23 March 1875	The Revd. C. Bruce
96	24 March 1875	James Carey Eliza Sullan	James Carey Elizabeth Tullen 💍 1875/506	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	36 26	Auckland Freeman's Bay	3 yrs. 6 yrs.	His dwelling house of Revd. Sullan, Freeman's Bay	75/379		24 March 1875	Revd. J. T. Marlow Davis
97	24 March 1875	Thomas Zaccheus Collins Ann Melville Henderson	Thomas Baccheus Collins Anne Melville Henderson 💍 1875/331	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker Sempstress	38 28	Shortland Shortland	16 yrs. 2 yrs.	Dwelling house of Revd. J. Barry, Takapuna	75/369		24 March 1875	Revd. J. Wallis, M. A.
98	24 March 1875	William Howes Christina Jane Howard	William Howes Christina Jane Howard 💍 1875/196	Bachelor Widow	Grocer Milliner	24 25	Papatoetoe Papatoetoe	2 yrs. 4 yrs.	St. Patrick's Cathedral, Auckland	75/1063		24 March 1875	Revd. Walter McDonald
99	25 March 1875	Andrew Loughlin Mary Ann Bryant	Andrew Joughin Margaret Jane Bryant 💍 1875/360	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 25	Epsom Parnell	16 yrs. 25 yrs.	The dwelling house of Mr. Bryant, Parnell	75/377		25 March 1875	Revd. C. Bruce
100	25 March 1875	George Woodhead Marian Holtom	George Woodhead Ellen Marian Holtom 💍 1875/723	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	24 24	Auckland Auckland	6 mos. 11 mos.	St. Matthew's Church, Auckland	75/633		29 March 1875	Revd. R. S. Hassard
101	30 March 1875	Edward Campbell Fanny Beeby	Edward Campbell Fanny Beeby 💍 1875/1231	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	21 18	Auckland Auckland	2 mos. 6 mos.	Dwelling house of Revd. A. Macdonald	75/1280	Mary Ann Beeby, mother	30 March 1875	Revd. A. Macdonald

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

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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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).