Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 109

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 1883

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
103	19 March 1883	John Thomas O'Connell Charlotte Catherine Brannigan	John Thomas O'Connell Charlotte Catharine Brannigan 💍 1883/166	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Domestic Duties	25 18	Auckland Auckland	2 1/2 years 18 years	St Benedicts Church Newton	83/104	Andrew Brannigan father	19 March 1883	Very Revd J.C. Downey Roman Catholic
104	19 March 1883	William Henry Hammond Alice Clarke	William Henry Hammond Alice Clarke 💍 1883/127	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Servant	24 25	Auckland Parnell	1 year 1 year	Dwelling house of Mr Catherine Clarke Parnell	83/92		19 March 1883	Revd Alexr. Carrick Presbyterian
105	20 March 1883	James Johnson Wood Elizabeth Annie Naden	James Johnson Woods Elizabeth Annie Naden 💍 1883/187	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	28 23	Auckland Auckland	4 years 6 years	St Matthews Church Hobson St Auckland	83/129		20 March 1883	Revd Wm. Tebbs Church of England
106	20 March 1883	Joseph Grant Emily Bidlake	Joseph Grant Emily Bidlake 💍 1883/103	Widower Spinster	Manufacturer Domestic	47 32	Auckland Auckland	23 years 1 year	Dwelling house of Mr Jas. Bidlake England St	83/68		20 March 1883	Revd Jas. Guy Prim. Methodist
107	21 March 1883	Charles Cooper Mary Teresa Donnelly	Charles Cooper Mary Theresa Donnelly 💍 1883/139	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic	32 34	Auckland Auckland	4 years 4 years	St Patricks Church Chapel St Auckland	83/80		21 March 1883	Revd W. McDonald Roman Catholic
108	21 March 1883	Richard Philpot Catherine Joyce	Richard Philpot Catherine Joyce 💍 1883/904	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Servant	20 19	Auckland Auckland	20 years 3 years	St Patricks Church Chapel St.	83/598	(14 days notice no Relatives) Mr. Walter MacDonald (father)	April 1883	Revd. Walter MacDonald Roman Catholic
109	21 March 1883	James Hyatt Harding Harriet Minnie Jeffries	James Wyatt Harding Harriet Minnie Jeffries 💍 1883/132	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Machinist	23 20	Auckland Auckland	19 years 18 years	Dwelling house of Mr W. Jeffries Alexandra St	83/96	W. Jeffries Father	21 March 1883	Revd R.H.P. Spurgin Baptist
110	21 March 1883	James Robinson Eleanor Babner	James Robinson Eleanor Balme 💍 1883/2046	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern maker Domestic	26 24	Auckland Auckland	26 years 24 years	St Sepulchres Church Kyber Pass Road	83/1162		21 March 1883	Revd B.Y. Dudley Church of England

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).