Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 201

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1882

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
425	2 November 1882	Levi Goodworth Eaton Mary Ann Grice	Levin Woodworth Eaton Mary Ann Grice 💍 1882/2739	Widower Widow	Auctioneer Housekeeper	71 46	91 Regent Street New Market	2 years 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Robert Neale, Clerk, Remuera	82/2608		2 November 1882	Rev. S. B. Monro, Presbyterian
426	2 November 1882	William Broadthorpe Helen Brown	William Broad Thorpe Helen Brown 💍 1882/2540 William Alfred Carter Selina Brown 💍 1882/403	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 24	Mt. Roskil Road Parnell	3 weeks 6 years	United Methodist Free Church, Auckland	82/2632		2 November 1882	Rev. I. Hodgson, United Methodist
427	4 November 1882	John Beake Sarah Emma Rosser	John Geake Arthur Sarah Emma Rosser 💍 1882/2752	Bachelor Spinster	Gas Manager Dressmaker	35 27	New Plymouth, Now Auckland Parnell	3 years 16 years	Dwellinghouse of Rev. Alex Reid, Karangahape Road, Auckland	82/2544		4 November 1882	Rev. Alex Reid, Wesleyan Methodist
428	4 November 1882	William Metcalf Mary Maud O'Hara	William Metcalf Mary Maud O'Hara 💍 1882/2665	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Dressmaker	30 21	Auckland Auckland	3 1/2 years 21 years	St. Benedict Church, Newton, Auckland	82/2682		4 November 1882	Rev. Father Downey, Roman Catholic
429	4 November 1882	William Dowell Walsh Margaret Elizabeth Frouthen	William Lovell Walsh Margaret Elizabeth Treverthen 💍 1882/2910	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	23 23	Auckland Auckland	2 years 3 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Auckland	82/2651		4 November 1882	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
430	6 November 1882	Benjamin McBechie Agnes Sinclair Jones	Benjamin McGechie Agnes Sinclair Jones 💍 1882/2660	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 23	Papatoetoe Papatoetoe	15 years 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Panel, Waken	82/2677	Mother of the bride	6 November 1882	Rev. John Mackey, Presbyterian
431	6 November 1882	Edward Wright Isabella Chappell	Edward Wright Isabella Chappell 💍 1882/2911	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Seamstress, formerly Graydon	34 30	Baker Street, Auckland Spring Street, Auckland	11 months 14 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Auckland	82/2652		6 November 1882	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.

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 1899. 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).