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 117

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 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
163	23 April 1883	Lauchlin Alexander McLean Margaret McKay	Lauchlin Alexander McLean Margaret McKay 💍 1883/907	Bachelor Spinster	Mate of P.S. Staffa	25 26	Auckland Auckland	3 weeks 6 years	St James Church	83/881		23 April 1883	Revd R. G. Macnicol Presbyterian
164	23 April 1883	Charles Thomas Boyd Katherine Ann South	Charles Thomas Boyd Katherine Ann South 💍 1883/917	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 23	Razor Back Auckland	18 years 6 months	St Pauls Church	83/890		23 April 1883	Revd C. M. Nelson Church England
165	23 April 1883	Thomas Mickle Catherine Brown	Thomas Meikle Catherine Brown 💍 1883/793	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	58 22	Awitu Awitu	16 years 15 years	Registry Office	83/834		23 April 1883	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
166	23 April 1883	Richard John Leirs Margaret Taylor	Richard John Levis Margaret Taylor 💍 1883/728	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 29	Hamilton Auckland	6 years 8 years	Congregational Church	83/818		23 April 1883	Revd J. P. Robertson Congregational
167	23 April 1883	Albert George Allow Annie Lang	Albert George Allom Annie Myra Lang 💍 1883/779	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	23 19	Auckland Auckland	3 years 2 years	Office of Regr. of Marriages	83/844	14 days notice	18 May 1883	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
168	25 April 1883	John Merrick Caroline Agnes Jackson	John Merrick Caroline Agnes Jackson 💍 1883/805	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Servant	22 25	Parnell Auckland	18 years 6 years	St Benedicts Church	83/870		25 April 1883	Revd J. C. Downey O.S.B. Roman Catholic
169	25 April 1883	Charles William Baleh Eliza Ellen Dixon	Charles William Balch Eliza Ellen Dixon 💍 1883/1037	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic Duties	31 30	Auckland Auckland	4 months 3 months	St Matthews Church	83/838		25 April 1883	Revd Wm. Tebbs Church 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).