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 431

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1886

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
200	22 April 1886	Henry Corbett Christina Temple	Henry Trott Christina Kerr 💍 1887/2201	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Teacher	28 21	Mangere Auckland	5 years 18 months	St Sepulchre's Church, Parnell	86/958		22 April 1886	R. L. Maclean, Presbyterian
201	22 April 1886	Arthur Redfearn Emma Isabella Webster		Bachelor Spinster	Mechanic Governess	42 21	Auckland Auckland	1 year 1 year	Presbyterian Church, Davenport	86/945		22 April 1886	R. F. Maclean, Presbyterian
202	24 April 1886	Frank Henry Williams Mabel Edith Howard	Frank Henry Williams Mabel Gould Howard 💍 1886/1076	Bachelor Spinster	Mechanical Draughtsman Governess	25 16	Remuera Parnell	25 years 16 years	Private Chapel, Bishop's Court	86/964	Howard, father	24 April 1886	Alfred Richardy, Bishop of Auckland, Ch of Engd
203	24 April 1886	Robert Sullivan Lawrence Clara Benson	Robert Gulliver Lawrence Clara Benton 💍 1886/1086	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	24 21	Te Awai Te Awai	22 years 2 years	The Tabernacle, Queen St, Auckland	86/952		24 April 1886	J. C. Spurgeon, Baptist
204	24 April 1886	George Quest Euphemia Dora Marshall	George Guest Euphemia Davie Martin 💍 1886/1069	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	25 25	Warkworth Mullet Point	3 years 25 years	St James' Church, Auckland	86/959		24 April 1886	R. F. Maclean, Presbyterian
205	24 April 1886	William Thomas Philpman Emily Ann Collins	William Thomas Whiteman Emily Anne Codlin 💍 1886/1145	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Spinster	30 21	Napier Exchange	2 years 21 years	St Peter's Church	86/1034		24 April 1886	M. E. Mulgan, Ch of Engd
206	24 April 1886	Alfred William Matson Harriet Martha Carmichael	Alfred William Watson Harriet Martha Carmichael 💍 1886/1093	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	33 25	Mangere Parnell	28 years 28 years	Dwelling of Thomas Sparrow, Carmichael	86/975		24 April 1886	R. P. Williams, Cong Independent

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).