Intentions to Marry, 1886

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840398, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 427

District of Auckland 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
172	9 April 1886	Thomas Joseph Judd Elizabeth E. Talley	Thomas Joseph Judge Elizabeth De Vally 💍 1886/1117	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber Printer	26 24	Auckland Auckland	15 yrs 5 yrs	Benedicts Church	86/983		9 April 1886	Rev D. J. C. Bowden, R Catholic
173	9 April 1886	Henry Percy Fordham Wilson Mary Eastgate		Widower Widow	Accountant	50 45	New Plymouth Auckland	15 yrs 3 mos	St James Church	86/954		9 April 1886	Rev R. F. Macnicol, Presbyterian
174	10 April 1886	William Valentine Porter Charlotte Annie Lawrence	William Valentine Porteous Charlotte Annie Lawrence 💍 1886/1047	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	25 21	Penrose Penrose	12 yrs 12 yrs	St Luke's Church at Penrose	86/937		10 April 1886	Rev D. P. Smallfield, Prim Methodist
175	10 April 1886	William Wellington Bastin Grace Ellen Spiller		Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	26 20	Parnell Terrace Parnell Terrace	2 yrs 10 days	Dwelling of Jane Whitehead	86/1152		10 April 1886	Rev D. A. E. Smith, Prim Methodist
176	12 April 1886	Alexander Stewart Mary Jane Scholes	Alexander Jack Mary Jane Rowe 💍 1886/3127 Alexander Shepherd Mary Jane Elliot 💍 1886/1412 Alexander McCamish Mary Jane Woods 💍 1886/23	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 25	Remuera Remuera	5 yrs 5 yrs	Dwelling of Robert Scholes	86/1090		12 April 1886	Rev D. F. B. Monro, Presbyterian
177	13 April 1886	Arthur Burchell Davison Alice Hopkins	Arthur Burchell Alice Hopkins 💍 1886/1146	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	29 26	Waihi Waihi	4 yrs 4 yrs	Dwelling of Fred Bridgens	86/1038		13 April 1886	Rev D. C. E. Nash
178	14 April 1886	Alfred Fursham Potter Elizabeth Hammond	Alfred Gurshom Potter Elizabeth Hammond 💍 1886/1140	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	29 20	Devonport Devonport	2 1/2 yrs 20 yrs	Registrars Office	86/1007	Thomas Hammond, Father	14 April 1886	J. Ownard, Registrar

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).