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 148

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
359	15 August 1883	James Frederick Derrick Charlotte Annie Sporrman	James Frederick Derrick Charlotte Annie Surman 💍 1883/1644	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 18	Auckland Arch Hill	3 years 2 years	St Matthews Church, Hobson Street	83/1124	Thomas Sporrman, Father	15 August 1883	Revd Wm Tebbs, Church England
360	16 August 1883	James Reid Bessie Maud Lecky	James Reid Bessie Maud Leeky 💍 1883/1630	Bachelor Widow	Sharebroker	48 28	Auckland Auckland	19 years 3 months	Dwelling of Revd R. J. Macnicol, Wellington Street	83/1111	Mrs. Lecky, Mother	16 August 1883	Revd R. J. Macnicol, Wesleyan
361	16 August 1883	William Potter Lucy Matilda Wood	William Potter Lucy Matilda Wood 💍 1883/1674	Bachelor Spinster	Coach driver	25 24	Avondale Remuera	25 years 24 years	St Marks Church	83/1132	Ven Archd L. Pritt	16 August 1883	Church of England
362	17 August 1883	Alfred Sharp Josephine Annie Kirkham	Alfred Sharp Josephine Annie Kirkham 💍 1883/2545	Widower Widow	Sheep Inspector	43 30	Hamilton Parnell	2 years 3 years	Wesleyan Church	83/2598	Mrs. Kirkham, Sister	17 August 1883	Revd J. J. Carr, Wesleyan
363	18 August 1883	Michael Lee Mary Ann Lyons	Michael Lee Mary Ann Lyons 💍 1883/1682	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 16	Auckland Auckland	1 month 3 months	Office of the Regr. of Marriages	83/1789	Thomas Lyons, Father	18 August 1883	Owen Lord, Dep. Regr.
364	20 August 1883	Montague James Dayrell Heldson Elizabeth Onearte Oldham	Montague James Dayrell Herdson Elizabeth Doncaster Oldham 💍 1883/1830	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman Dressmaker	22 22	Port Waikato Mount Eden	6 years 10 months	Dwelling house of James Heath, Charlotte Street, Eden	83/1129		20 August 1883	Revd J. Spurgeon, Baptist
365	20 August 1883	Frederick George Platt Annie Christina Moore	Frederick George Platt Annie Christina Moore 💍 1883/2066	Bachelor Spinster	Book Keeper	26 20	Auckland Hour St Auckland	4 years 4 years	Dwelling house of John Platt, Elephant Street, Ponsonby	83/1758		3 September 1883	Revd Sand. Macfarlane, United Methodist

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).