Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 1276

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1885

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
574	11 November 1885	Adolphus Durrier Anna Rumsey	Louis Adolphus Durrien Anna Rumsey 💍 1885/2823	Widower Spinster	Prov. District Auditor	54 24	Mt Eden Road Mt Eden Road	11 years 1 year	Church of St Thomas, Freeman's Bay	85/2934		11 November 1885	Rev. W. Mcdu Ruin
575	12 November 1885	William Henry Lear Annie Van Reven		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 17	Auckland Auckland	9 months 11 months	Dwelling of Adrian Phillips, Manukau Road	85/2944	A. P. Van Reven, Father	12 November 1885	Rev. H. Bull
576	12 November 1885	George Gamore Mary Liddell	George Barney Gilmore Mary Diddell 💍 1885/2796 George Peterson Mary Buddle 💍 1885/3555	Bachelor Spinster	Millowner	30 17	Auckland Ototara	8 months 17 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	85/2984	William Liddell, Father	12 November 1885	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
577	14 November 1885	John William Proctor Sarah Smith	John William Proctor Sarah Smith 💍 1885/2841 John William Steed Clara Jane Smith 💍 1886/538	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	20 20	Auckland Auckland	20 months 10 months	Dwelling of Samuel Smith, Lincoln Street	85/2930	Samuel Smith, Parents	14 November 1885	Reg. J. Boothroyd
578	16 November 1885	James Thompson Middlebrook Elizabeth Edgar Rumney	James Thompson Middlebrook Elizabeth Edgar Murray 💍 1886/15	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 20	Bay of Islands Bay of Islands	2 months 2 months	Office of the Reg. of Mgs	86/135		16 November 1885	Reg.
579	18 November 1885	Robert Miller Henrietta Perrow	Robert Millar Henrietta Perrow 💍 1885/2961	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 19	Napier Auckland	6 months 9 years	Dwelling of Harriet Perrow	85/3017	Harriet Perrow, Mother	18 November 1885	Rev. J. Robertson
580	18 November 1885	Robert Caldwell Mary Elizabeth Huckett	Robert Caldwell Mary Elizabeth Huckett 💍 1885/2826	Bachelor Spinster	Tramway Inspector	27 27	Auckland Auckland	18 months 2 years	Dwelling of Rev. J. Springson, Westwood	85/2939		18 November 1885	Rev. J. Springson

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).