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 141

District of Auckland Quarter ending July to August 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
323	24 July 1883	Noble Nixon Jane Armstrong	Noble Nixon Jane Armstrong 💍 1883/1651	Widower Spinster	Farmer	27 24	Taupaki Ponsonby	5 years 3 years	Dwelling of Mrs Sam Armstrong, Houptin Street	83/1408		24 July 1883	Revd R.G. Macnicol, Presbyterian
324	26 July 1883	Frederick John Wilson Sarah Craig	Frederick John Wilson Sarah Craig 💍 1883/2060	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Printer	29 29	Wairoa South Auckland	10 years 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/1445		26 July 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
325	26 July 1883	Michael Downey Isabella Mary Ann Burton	Michael Downey Isabella Mary Ann Beeston 💍 1883/2059	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	21 18	Auckland Auckland	21 years 18 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/1444	Father	26 July 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
326	26 July 1883	Thomas Henry Murtagh Alice Rellett	Thomas Henry Murtagh Alice Elliott 💍 1883/2065	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	26 21	Auckland Auckland	3 years 3 months	Methodist Church, Pitt Street	83/1457		26 July 1883	Revd S. Macfarlane, Minister Methodist
327	27 July 1883	Natale Caramman Sarah Jane Pearce	Natale Caraman Sarah Jane Pearce 💍 1883/1688	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	29 24	Onehunga Onehunga	2 years 24 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/1477		27 July 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
328	28 July 1883	George Alfred Martin Sarah Caroline Edith Philson	George Alfred Martin Vera Caroline Edith Philson 💍 1883/1828	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	25 22	Auckland Auckland	25 years 23 years	Wesleyan Church, Grafton Road	83/1827		28 July 1883	Revd Thos. Spurgeon, Baptist
329	31 July 1883	William Joseph Cheeseman Eliza Pope	William Joseph Cheeseman Elizabeth Pope 💍 1883/1996	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 23	Remuera Pokino	24 years 7 days	Dwelling of Mr Thomas Pope, Maungatawhiri Pokino Valley	83/1849		31 July 1883	Revd P.S. Smallfield, 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).