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 1293

District of Quarter ending

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
473	15 September 1885	Jocelyn Johnston Fletcher Elizabeth Evans	Jocelyn Johnstone Fletcher Elizabeth Evans 💍 1885/2154 James Chittock Elizabeth Evans 💍 1885/942 Joseph Greenwood Marshall Elizabeth Evans 💍 1885/1495 John Alexander Lucas Elizabeth Evans 💍 1885/266	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 25	Kati Kati Auckland	10 years 2 years	Registrars office Auckland	85/2000		15 September 1885	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
474	15 September 1885	Thomas Meehan Bridget McDermott	Thomas Meehan Bridget McDermott 💍 1885/2039	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	33 30	Auckland Newton	6 years 12 years	St Benedicts Church	85/2023		15 September 1885	Very Rev. J. P. Cowie, Roman Catholic
475	15 September 1885	Thomas Felton Amelia Ann Young	Thomas Felton Amelia Ann Young 💍 1885/2651	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	33 18	Ellerslie Ponsonby	7 years 5 years	Dwelling of Archibald Young	85/2824	Archibald Young, father	15 September 1885	Rev. R. Sommerville, Presbyterian
476	15 September 1885	William Edward Lippiatt Jane Crooks	William Edward Lippiatt Jane Crooks 💍 1885/1957	Bachelor Spinster	Nurseryman	23 20	Otahuhu East Tamaki	20 years 8 years	Dwelling of David Crooks	85/1990	David Crooks, father	15 September 1885	Rev. J. Macky, Presbyterian
477	15 September 1885	Thomas Wallace Eileen Gettings	Thomas Wallace Eileen Gettings 💍 1885/2132	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	28 21	Auckland Auckland	28 years 21 years	Registrars Office	85/2004		15 September 1885	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
478	16 September 1885	Charles Nathaniel Murray Annie Isabell Wright	Charles Nathaniel Murray Annie Isabel Wright 💍 1885/2076	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	20 19	Waihou Rocky Nook	9 years 3 months	St Sepulchres Church	85/2113	Annie Maria Wright, mother	16 September 1885	Ven. B. T. Dudley, Church of England
479	17 September 1885	Wallace Jones Annie Starrat	Wallace Jones Nannie Starrat 💍 1885/2064	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 20	Te Awamutu Ponsonby	10 years 12 years	Dwelling of Wm Starrat	85/2125	William Starrat, father	17 September 1885	Rev. P. Munro, Presbyterian

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).