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 081

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
123	20 April 1875	James Michael French Sarah Parker	James Michael French Sarah Parker 💍 1875/1218	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	22 24	Dedwood Auckland	14 years 10 years	Dwelling house of Mr Parker, Wellesley St. Auckland	75/1291		20 April 1875	Revd. J. S. Turner
124	20 April 1875	Edward Downing Fanny Peak Bax	Edward Downing Fanny Peak Bax 💍 1875/657	Widower Spinster	Farmer	37 27	Newton Newton	12 months 12 months	St Mary's Church, Parnell	75/1381		20 April 1875	Revd. C. P. Maunsell
125	21 April 1875	James Matthew Mary Anna Brown	James Mathew Mary Anna Brown 💍 1875/1134	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	30 28	Auckland Grafton Road	4 years 10 years	Dwelling house of Mr E. Brown, Grafton Road	75/1385		21 April 1875	Revd. David Bruce
126	22 April 1875	William Henry Taylor Adeline Florence McGlade	William Henry Taylor Adelene Florence McGlade 💍 1875/658	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker Servant	26 20	Auckland Parnell	2 years 2 months	St Mary's Church, Parnell	75/1388	No person in the Colony has authority	13 May 1875	Revd. C. P. Maunsell
127	22 April 1875	Robert John Clark Louisa Crago	Robert John Clark Louisa Crago 💍 1875/824	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 23	Karangahape Road Auckland	10 years 5 years	Dwelling house of Mr Crago, Newton Road	75/1460		22 April 1875	Revd. P. H. Cornford
128	23 April 1875	William Westrop Annie Douglas	William Westrop Annie Douglas 💍 1875/1183 James Cooper Annie Douglas 💍 1876/666	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman Servant	21 19	Onehunga Onehunga	3 years 11 years	St Peter's Church, Onehunga	75/1082	Colonial Secretary's consent	23 April 1875	Revd. A. G. Purchas
129	26 April 1875	James Pollock Margaret Baird	James Pollock Margaret Baird 💍 1875/1204	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	27 20	Ponsonby Auckland	27 years 11 years	Dwelling house of Mrs A. Baird, William St. Auckland	75/1295	Alex Baird, Father	26 April 1875	Revd. J. S. Wallis M. A.
130	28 April 1875	John James Brock Phoebe Willis	John James Brook Phoebe Willis 💍 1875/2078	Widower Widow	Builder	50 43	Newton Road Ponsonby Road	15 years 20 years	Primitive Methodist Church, Edwards St. Auckland			28 April 1875	Revd. J. H. Turner

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).