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 1200

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
499	15 December 1886	Frank Percy Moren Maud Preen	Frank Percy Moren Maud Green 💍 1886/2648	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 27	Napier Terrace Napier Terrace	5 years 5 years	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	86/2608		15 December 1886	Rev. W. Calder, Ch. of England
500	16 December 1886	Oscar Luth Carpenter Sarah Maria Hindelock	Oscar Lush Carpenter Sarah Annie Fishlock 💍 1886/2657	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Employee	26 20	Queen Street Queen Street	7 months 7 months	Office of the Registrar	86/2640		16 December 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
501	16 December 1886	William Pearce Baller Eliza Baller	William Pearce Eliza Baker 💍 1886/2658	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	22 19	Nelson Street Nelson Street	3 years 19 years	Office of the Registrar	86/2641	Thomas Baller, Father	16 December 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
502	16 December 1886	John Charles Chappell Sarah May	John Charles Chappell Sarah Way 💍 1886/2717	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	29 27	Union Street Pitt Street	21 years 10 years	Dwelling of William Cross, Stewart Street, Newton	86/2699		16 December 1886	Rev. W. L. Cross, Cong. Indepdt.
503	17 December 1886	Josiah Dell Priscilla Bonallack	Josiah Dell Priscilla McDonald 💍 1886/3332	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	28 21	Pratt Street Auckland	4 years 21 years	St. Matthews Church	86/3393		17 December 1886	Rev. W. Tebbs, Ch. of England
504	18 December 1886	John Griffith Rennie Lilian Cuellson	John Griffith Rennie Lilian Cuckson 💍 1887/2417	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 19	Auckland Auckland	8 years 4 years	The Wesleyan Manse, Pitt Street	86/99	George Cuellson, Father	18 December 1886	Rev. W. A. Bull, Wesleyan
505	20 December 1886	John Jackson Jessie McLean	John Jackson Jessie McLean 💍 1886/2720	Widower Spinster	Labourer	29 23	Newton Freemans Bay	4 years 23 years	Dwelling of Robt. Smith	86/2679		20 December 1886	Rev. R. J. Smith, Primitive Methodist

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).