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 153

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
394	5 September 1883	John George Kohleis Martha Matilda Alexandra Kohleis	John George Kohlees Martha Matilda Alexander 💍 1883/1833	Widower Widow	Farmer	48 49	Ohaupo Ohaupo	18 years 4 months	Dwelling of Mr. Alfred Edward [illegible] Newton Road	83/1832		5 September 1883	Rev. Thos. Spurgeon, Baptist
395	5 September 1883	William Henry Jane Emma Stevens	William Henry Jane Emma Stevens 💍 1883/1670	Widower Spinster	Storeman	41 29	Mt. Roskill Auckland	7 years 4 months	Dwelling of Mr. Henry Jane, Mt. Roskill Road	83/1428		5 September 1883	Rev. James Guy, Prim. Methodist
396	5 September 1883	James Barker Ellen Higgins	James Barker Ellen Higgins 💍 1883/1787	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	22 19	Auckland Auckland	22 years 19 years	Dwelling of Mr. Joseph Barker, Cross St Newton	83/1692	Daniel Higgins, father	5 September 1883	Rev. Wm. Potter, Prim. Methodist
397	6 September 1883	James Francis Ferguson Lambeth Kate Brady	James Francis Fergusson Lambert Kate Brady 💍 1883/1656	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Seamstress	23 22	Auckland Auckland	23 years 14 years	St. Benedicts Church, Newton	83/1438		6 September 1883	Very Rev. J. O. Downey, Roman Catholic
398	8 September 1883	William Laing Malcolm Jane Helen De Lacy	William Laing Malcolmson Jane Helen De Lacy 💍 1883/1849	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	32 26	Auckland Auckland	4 months 3 years	St. Sepulchres Church, Khyber Pass	83/1825		8 September 1883	Rev. B. T. Dudley, Church England
399	11 September 1883	Thomas Wilson Ellen Jane Spalding	Thomas Wilson Ellen Jane Spalding 💍 1883/1689	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	24 29	Auckland Auckland	9 months 3 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/1795		11 September 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Regr.
400	11 September 1883	Joseph Brennan Mary Keohan	Joseph Brennan Mary Keehan 💍 1883/1661	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	27 23	Onehunga Onehunga	14 years 18 years	Roman Catholic Church, Onehunga	83/1743		11 September 1883	Rev. J. Paul, Roman Catholic

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).