Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 075

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1876

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
401	3 January 1876	Michael Coughlan Catherine Mealy	Michael Coughlan Catherine Leamny 💍 1876/300	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 31	Usually at Waiuku Usually at Otahuhu	1 week 1 week	Catholic Church, Otahuhu	76/249		3 January 1876	Rev. M. D. O'Hara
402	4 January 1876	William Bell Bridger Pleasance Cornish	William Bell Bridge Pleasance Cornish 💍 1876/308	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	26 25	Usually at Dunedin Randolph Street, Newton	3 days 10 years	St Sepulchres Church, Auckland	76/254		4 January 1876	Rev. B. T. Dudley
403	4 January 1876	William Edward Mann Caroline Prime	William Edward Mann Caroline Prime 💍 1876/304	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	24 22	Karangahapi Road Karangahapi Road	17 years 12 years	Dwelling of S. W. Prime, Karangahape Road, Auckland	76/230		4 January 1876	Rev. S. H. Cornford
404	4 January 1876	Theodore William Hickson Edith Jane Martin	Theodore William Hickson Edith Jane Martin 💍 1876/757	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 22	Usually at Gisborne Tamaki	3 days 22 years	St John's Church, Otara	76/685		4 January 1876	Rev. R. A. Hall
405	5 January 1876	David Burke Amelia Jane Smith	David Buike Amelia Jane David 💍 1876/158	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	34 21	Karangahapi Road, Auckland Karangahapi Road, Auckland	12 years 2 years	Dwelling house of David Burke, Karangahape Road, Auckland	76/21		5 January 1876	Rev. Love Wallis M.D.
406	6 January 1876	James Caddy Davies Mary Ann Payne	James Caldy Davies Mary Ann Payne 💍 1876/205	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Baker's daughter	30 29	Usually at Taranaki Ponsonby	5 days 8 years	All Saints Church, Ponsonby, Auckland	76/268		6 January 1876	Rev. E. N. Bree
407	7 January 1876	Charles Murray Eill Susanna Armistead	Charles Murray Evitt Susanna Armistead 💍 1876/291	Bachelor Spinster	Gunsmith Machinist	29 20	Union Street, Auckland Ponsonby	15 years 10 years	Dwelling house of Mr Armistead, Ponsonby	76/241	John Armistead, Father	7 January 1876	Rev. A. Macdonald
408	10 January 1876	George James Thorpe Elizabeth Jane Spears	George James Thorpe Elizabeth Jane Speares 💍 1876/154	Widower Spinster	Collarman Servant	23 21	Machemate Hotel, Auckland Parnell	2 years 2 years	St Paul's Church, Auckland	76/79		10 January 1876	Rev. C. M. Nelson

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).