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 130

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
256	18 June 1883	Charles Samuel Hawkeswood Edith Ellen Smith	Charles Samuel Hawkeswood Edith Ellen Smith 💍 1883/3541	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	23 19	Auckland Auckland	22 years 9 years	St Marys Church Parnell	83/809	Joseph Smith Father	18 June 1883	Revd G. H. S. Walpole Church of England
257	18 June 1883	Peter Cooper Miller Mary Ann Addison	Peter Cooper Miller Mary Ann Addison 💍 1883/818	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 23	Onehunga Onehunga	4 days 23 years	Office of Regr of Marriages Auckland	83/860		18 June 1883	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
258	18 June 1883	James McNair Martha Eliza Cross	James McNair Martha Eliza Crouch 💍 1883/916	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	27 22	Richmond Hill Newton	34 18	Dwelling of Mr. Geo. [illegible] Newton Road	83/888		18 June 1883	Revd R. F. Macnicol Presbyterian
259	18 June 1883	Edward John Waddell Lizzie Topham	Edward John Waddell Lizzie Topham 💍 1883/820	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Domestic Servant	36 24	Auckland Auckland	15 3	Office of the Registrar Auckland	83/862		18 June 1883	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.
260	19 June 1883	Joseph Arnold Emma Hoofway	Joseph Arnold Emma Heighway 💍 1883/733	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	43 33	Avondale Avondale	20 20	Dwelling of Mr. Jos. Arnold Avondale	83/823		19 June 1883	Revd James Guy Primitive Methodist
261	19 June 1883	William Gadd Anna Elizabeth Cordis	William Gadd Anna Elizabeth Cordes 💍 1883/1017	Widower Spinster	Baker	26 19	Auckland Auckland	7 14	Dwelling of Mrs. Jane Cordis Wellesley Street	83/934	Jane Cordis Mother	19 June 1883	Revd Alex Reid Wesleyan
262	20 June 1883	Matthew Finlay Annie Bregmen	Matthew Finlay Annie Bregmin 💍 1883/3544	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 23	Waiuku Waiuku	15 23	Dwelling of Mr. Tho. [illegible] Waiuku	83/884		20 June 1883	Revd R. F. Macnicol Presbyterian
263	20 June 1883	Sydney Bowring Margaret Bethia Wilson	Sydney Bowring Margaret Esther McEwin 💍 1883/803	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	23 25	Auckland Auckland	4 14	Dwelling of Mr. Tho. McCulloch Pailment Street	83/868		20 June 1883	Revd J. S. Robinson Congregational
264	21 June 1883	Job Edge Alice McMahon	Job Edye Alice McMahon 💍 1883/819	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Duties	26 26	Auckland Auckland	14 days 26 years	Office of Regr of Marriages Auckland	83/861		21 June 1883	J. Owen Lord Dep. Reg.

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).