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 1187

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 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
408	1 October 1886	Charles James Aitkin Alice Louise Clark	Charles James Aickin Alice Louisa Clarke 💍 1886/2669	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	25 27	Epsom Auckland	17 yrs 14 yrs	St Sepulchre's Church	86/2657		1 October 1886	Ven B.J. Dudley Ch of England
409	4 October 1886	Henry Thomas Curtice Caroline Stout	Henry Thomas Curtice Caroline Stout 💍 1886/2651	Widower Widow	Cook	52 28	Mt Albert Mt Albert	25 yrs 19 yrs	Office of the Registrar	86/2611		4 October 1886	J. Owen Lord Regr
410	5 October 1886	Philip Benize Mary Rose Appleton	Philip Denize May Rose Appleton 💍 1886/2695	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	27 24	Onehunga Onehunga	24 yrs 24 yrs	St Sepulchre's Church	86/2654		5 October 1886	Ven B.J. Dudley Ch of England
411	5 October 1886	Frederick Charles Bassett Harriet Adele Rowley	Frederick Charles Bassett Harriett Adelle Powley 💍 1886/2703	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	25 26	Ponsonby Mt Eden	20 yrs 26 yrs	Dwelling House of Thos. Elvin Rowley, Burleigh Street, Mt Eden	86/2686		5 October 1886	Rev. D.F. Bray Baptist
412	6 October 1886	Augustus Frederick James Mary Anne Fruin	Augustus Frederick James Mary Annie Trude 💍 1886/2677	Bachelor Spinster	Agent	29 30	Te Aroha Auckland	4 yrs 30 yrs	St Sepulchre's Church	86/2652		6 October 1886	Ven B.J. Dudley Ch of England
413	7 October 1886	James Patrick Tierney Ellen Catherine Ryan		Bachelor Spinster	Cabdriver	21 17	Wakefield Street Symonds Street	13 yrs 17 yrs	Office of the Registrar		Mr Tierney	7 October 1886	J. Owen Lord Regr
414	8 October 1886	Richard Hobble Matilda Abernethy	Richard Noble Matilda Abernethy 💍 1886/3329	Widower Spinster	Labourer	40 28	Newton Newton	2 yrs 2 yrs	St Matthew's Church	86/3390		8 October 1886	Rev. W. Tebbs Ch of England

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).