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 215

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1882 Registrar John Muir Wayland

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
508	20 December 1882	David Walker Martha Catherine Davison	David Walker Martha Catherine Davison 💍 1882/2668	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Dressmaker	26 26	Wairoa, Auckland Wairoa, Auckland	7 days 7 days	Roman Catholic Chapel, Auckland	82/2684		20 December 1882	Revd J. C. Downey, Roman Catholic
509	20 December 1882	Edward Jones Rose Sophia Bristin	Edward Jones Rose Sophia Brislin 💍 1883/110 Edward Jones Mary Sophia Ralph 💍 1882/2870	Bachelor Spinster	Gum Packer Servant	23 19	Auckland Auckland	9 months 3 years	Dwelling house of Revd W. Macdonald, Auckland	83/14	14 days Notice!	3 January 1883	Revd Walter Macdonald, Roman Catholic
510	21 December 1882	John Quickfall Mary Ann Legge	John Quickfall Mary Ann Legge 💍 1882/2803	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	31 31	Port Albert, Auckland Port Albert, Auckland	3 days 3 days	Church, Beresford St, Auckland	82/2698		21 December 1882	Revd Joseph Robertson, Congregational
511	21 December 1882	William Callender Sarah Lattie Hamer	William Callender Lallie Hamer 💍 1882/2780	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Officer	29 28	Auckland Hyber Pass	5 years 28 years	Church, Beresford Street, Auckland	82/2699		21 December 1882	Revd Joseph Robertson, Congregational
512	22 December 1882	Henry Robertson Janet McKay	Henry Robertson Janet Mackay 💍 1882/2741 Arthur Robertson Janet Marshal 💍 1882/3257	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	28 32	Lake Takapuna Lake Takapuna	14 days 32 years	Presbyterian Church, Remuera	82/2609		22 December 1882	Revd R. J. Maenicol, Presbyterian
513	22 December 1882	Jacob Morey Mary Jane Trenham	Jacob Morey Mary Jane Oxenham 💍 1882/2672	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Messenger Domestic	24 22	Hyber Pass Hyber Pass	4 years 14 days	Dwelling house of Mrs M. Bentham, Hyber Pass	82/2689	Mr C. W. La Roche	22 December 1882	Revd Thomas Sturgeon, Baptist
514	22 December 1882	Robert Barttell Martin Mary Taylor	Robert Bartlett Martin Mary Taylor 💍 1882/2781 James Lawler Mary Taylor 💍 1882/1949	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright Domestic	29 20	Ponsonby Ponsonby	29 years 20 years	Dwelling house of Revd Jo. Robertson, Beresford St, Auckland	82/2700		22 December 1882	Revd Joseph Robertson, Congregational

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).