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 203

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
439	13 November 1882	John Isaac Furb Mary Ellen Harris	John Isaac Trush Mary Ellen Harris 💍 1882/2914	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Waikato Pakaranga	9 months 17 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Auckland	82/2655		13 November 1882	J. Owen Lord Dep Reg
440	13 November 1882	John Bourke Sarah Keogh	John Bourke Sarah Keogh 💍 1882/2744	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	30 about 28	Auckland Auckland	3 months 9 years	Roman Catholic Church Albert St Auckland	82/2012		13 November 1882	Rev. Father Walter Mc Donald Roman Catholic
441	13 November 1882	John Leonard Harrison Frances Sarah Longman		Bachelor Spinster	Silver Smith	25 25	Auckland Auckland	3 years 4 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Auckland			13 November 1882	J. Owen Lord Dep Reg
442	13 November 1882	William Quinn Charlotte Eliza Cameron formerly Bellingham	William Queenin Charlotte Eliza Cameron 💍 1882/2554	Widower Widow	Storekeeper Matron	40 39	New Market New Market	34 years 16 years	The Right Revd The Bishop's Chapel Parnell Auckland	82/2622		13 November 1882	Right Revd W. G. Cowie Bishop L. E.
443	13 November 1882	Walter Fisher Fisher Josephine Annie Kirkman	Walter Fisher Fisher Josephine Louise Kirkman 💍 1882/2725	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 19	Auckland Auckland	19 years 2 years	Dwelling home of Mr. J. Kirkman Mt. Eden	82/3024	J. Kirkman Father	13 November 1882	Rev. J. Macnicoll Presbyterian Church of N. J.
444	14 November 1882	Ridley William Moody Sarah Jane Palmer	Ridley William Moody Sarah Jane Palmer 💍 1882/2573	Widower Spinster	Bullman	52 23	Higher Pass Ponsonby	4 years 6 months	Dwelling home of Mr. Henry Palmer Ponsonby	82/2589		14 November 1882	Rev. H. B. Dewsbury Wesleyan Methodist
445	14 November 1882	George Hill Janet Hughes	George Fell Janet Hughes 💍 1882/3454	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner Dressmaker	21 19	Auckland Auckland	4 years 18 years	St. Matthews Church Auckland	82/3383	James Hughes Father	14 November 1882	Rev. S. Tebbs Church England
446	15 November 1882	Thomas Albert Thorp Ellen Amelia Coppelwell	Thomas Albert Thorp Ellen Amelia Poppelwell 💍 1882/2912	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 21	Ponsonby Ponsonby	6 months 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Auckland	82/2653		15 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).