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 205

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
454	18 November 1882	John Coleal Mary Ann Smith	John Cleal Mary Ann Smith 💍 1882/3348 James Capil Mary Ann Smith 💍 1882/2703 John Keehan Margaret Ann Smith 💍 1882/492	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Dressmaker	22 18	Auckland Auckland	8 years 8 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Eli Coleal	82/3422	Eliza Smith mother	18 November 1882	James King Primitive Methodist
455	18 November 1882	Henry Petry Annie Aubrey	Henry Petry Annie Aubrey 💍 1882/3496	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	21 23	Auckland Auckland	7 years 1 month	St Thomas's Church, Auckland	82/3505		18 November 1882	Rev. S. Humphrey Davis, Church of England
456	20 November 1882	William Spickman Nellie Wardell	William Spickman Nellie Wardell 💍 1882/2915	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Schoolteacher	32 22	Mercury Bay Auckland	9 months 18 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages	82/2656		20 November 1882	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
457	20 November 1882	Axel Isaak Wallin Mary Ann Acton	Axel Isaak Wallin Mary Ann Aston 💍 1882/2916	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	26 23	Auckland Auckland	14 days 6 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages	82/2657		20 November 1882	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
458	21 November 1882	William Henry Jones Jane Vance	William Alfred Broad Jane Tyne 💍 1882/1500	Widower Spinster	Manager, tubing iron works	37 21	Onehunga Onehunga	3 months 12 years	Dwellinghouse of Mr. Geo. Vance			21 November 1882	James Bruce Presbyterian of N.J.
459	21 November 1882	James Ross Elizabeth Reid	James Ross Elizabeth Reid 💍 1882/2917	Widower Widow	Carpenter Housekeeper	54 32	Manukau, Auckland Alexandria, Auckland	2 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	82/2658	William Gordon Grant	21 November 1882	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
460	23 November 1882	Alexander James Hazard Kate Mackey	Alexander James Haszard Kate Mackey 💍 1882/3359	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	36 22	Bombay Bombay	9 years 9 years	Dwelling house of Mr. Moses Brooker	82/3423		23 November 1882	James King Primitive Methodist

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).