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 116

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
154	18 April 1883	Thomas Emanuel Carter Harriet Jemima Argent	Thomas Emanuel Curtis Harriet Jemima Argent 💍 1883/784	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Domestic Duties	33 23	Auckland Auckland	14 days 2 years	Office of the Regr. of Mrges Auckland	83/831		18 April 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
155	18 April 1883	John Nichols Rose Smith	John Nicholls Rose Ann Smith 💍 1883/3375	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 21	East Tamaki Otahuhu	18 months 6 years	Roman Catholic Church Otahuhu	83/3586		18 April 1883	Revd. M. Q. O'Hara, Roman Catholic
156	19 April 1883	Abraham Goldwater Kate Middelson	Abraham Goldwater Kate Mendelson 💍 1883/791	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	25 27	Auckland Auckland	25 years 12 years	Office of Regr. of Mrges Auckland	83/832		19 April 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
157	19 April 1883	Thomas Edward Read Bloomfield Mary Swanson	Thomas Edward Read Bloomfield Mary Swanson 💍 1883/794	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	23 19	Gisborne Auckland	22 years 19 years	Office of Regr. of Mrges Auckland	83/835	Wm. Swanson, Father	19 April 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
158	19 April 1883	John Macleod Kate Long	John Macleod Kate Long 💍 1883/896	Bachelor Spinster	Basket Maker Servant	23 22	Auckland Auckland	18 years 8 years	St. James' Church Auckland	83/880		19 April 1883	F. & Revd. R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
159	20 April 1883	Joshua Sykes Elizabeth Monny MN Bremner	Joshua Lyes Elizabeth Money 💍 1883/360	Widower Widow	Miner	61 56	Thames Thames	15 years 14 years	St. Pauls Church Auckland	83/889		20 April 1883	Revd. C. W. Nelson, Church of England
160	20 April 1883	John Henry Lyons Catherine Holland	John Henry Lyons Catherine Holland 💍 1883/12	Bachelor Spinster	Plate Layer	28 23	Helensville Helensville	3 1/2 years 3 years	St. Patricks Church Auckland	83/905		20 April 1883	Revd. Walter Macdonald, Roman Catholic
161	20 April 1883	Noble Heppell Todd Margaret McGregor	Robert Clegg Margaret McGregor 💍 1883/1585	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	29 17	Newmarket Newmarket	18 months 11 years	Office of Regr. of Mrges Auckland	83/833	Allan McGregor, Mother	20 April 1883	J. Owen Lord, Dep. Reg.
162	21 April 1883	Thomas Francis Boylan Mary Jane Baker	Thomas Francis Boylan Mary Jane Baker 💍 1883/988	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 22	Ponsonby Auckland	25 years 23 years	St. Sepulchres Church Auckland	83/914		21 April 1883	Revd. E. H. Bree, Church of 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).