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 1290

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
494	23 September 1885	Robert Davy Margaret Baskerville	Robert Long Margaret Baskiville 💍 1885/1992 Robert Davis Margaret Sharp 💍 1885/2025	Bachelor Spinster	Cafe Keeper	27 23	Auckland Pammure	27 years 23 years	St Patricks Cathedral	85/2050		23 September 1885	Rev. W. Macdonald
495	23 September 1885	John Edmund Hilsall Caroline Hills	John Edmund Kelsall Caroline Hills 💍 1885/2077	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	29 25	Onehunga Do	20 years 20 years	St Sepulchres Church	85/2114		23 September 1885	Ven. B. T. Dudley
496	23 September 1885	George Edmund Jury Avis Ann George	George Edward Terry Tuck Avis Ann George 💍 1885/2137	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Auckland Auckland	23 years 18 years	Registrars Office	85/2099	Jane George, mother	23 September 1885	J. Ormond, Reg.
497	23 September 1885	Duncan McKenzie Hughina McKinnon	Duncan McKenzie Hughena McKinnon 💍 1885/2008 Duncan McKenzie Minnie Cairnie 💍 1885/2579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 23	Okihau Bay of Islands Auckland	10 years 6 months	St James Church	85/2059		23 September 1885	Rev. R. Macnicoll
498	24 September 1885	Alfred Arthur Bootham Beatrice Eva Foster	Alfred Arthur Borcham Beatrice Eva Foster 💍 1885/2138	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	21 20	Ponsonby Auckland	9 years 7 years	Registrars Office	85/2100	Sarah Ann Bootham, mother	24 September 1885	J. Ormond, Reg.
499	25 September 1885	William Hampton Sarah Ann Radford	William Hampton Sarah Ann Radford 💍 1885/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 29	Auckland Princes Street	1 year 2 years	Dwelling of John March	85/1993		26 September 1885	Rev. J. Robertson
500	25 September 1885	Henry Owen Ounsford Frances Anne Sanderson	Henry Owen Dunsford Frances Anne Sanderson 💍 1885/2773	Widower Spinster	Commission Agent	48 38	Ponsonby Kyber Pass	13 years 33 years	St Sepulchres Church	85/2961		25 September 1885	Ven. B. T. Dudley

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).