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 1194

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
457	8 November 1886	Hans Peter Lorenzen Mary Margaret Marshall	Hans Peter Sorensen Mary Margaret Marshall 💍 1886/2663	Bachelor Spinster	Datter Spinster	34 27	Karaka Creek Karaka Creek	6 years 6 years	Office of the Registrar Auckland	86/2628		8 November 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
458	10 November 1886	John Joseph Bright Ruth Ann Williams	John Joseph Enright Ruth Ann Williams 💍 1886/2685	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	25 19	Waiuku Exchange	20 years 1 year	St Peters Church	86/2668	Mother	10 November 1886	Rev'd F. E. Mulgan, Ch of England
459	10 November 1886	William Robert Lucas Eliza Hill	William Robert Lucas Eliza Nice 💍 1886/2745	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	30 38	Panmure Auckland	2 years 2 years	Bishops Chapel Bishops Court	86/2704		10 November 1886	Right Rev'd W. G. Cowie, Bishop Ch of England
460	10 November 1886	John George Damon Eliza Nelson	John George Hamon Eliza Nelson 💍 1886/2706	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Custodian Spinster	37 22	Auckland Kingsland	3 years 20 years	Dwelling of Philip Damon	86/2689		10 November 1886	Rev'd R. Bruce, Presbyterian
461	10 November 1886	Alexander Cameron Cockhead Emily Coersen	Alexander Cameron Emily Cockhead 💍 1886/3392	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	31 24	Auckland Parnell	28 years 8 years	Church of St James	86/3454		10 November 1886	Rev'd R. Bruce, Presbyterian
462	12 November 1886	Thomas Judson Duigan Annie O'Dowd	Thomas Yuck Quoi Annie O'Dowd 💍 1886/2701	Bachelor Spinster	Restaurant Keeper Spinster	30 26	Victoria Street Mt Albert	8 years 20 years	St Benedicts Church	86/2660	Father	12 November 1886	Rev'd J. O'Dowd, Roman Catholic
463	12 November 1886	William Elder Mary Ann Smith	Thomas John Rodgers Mary Ann Smith 💍 1887/2042	Widower Spinster	Implement Maker Spinster	35 32	Hobson Street Arch Hill	14 years 25 years	Dwelling of Mr Elder	86/2671		12 November 1886	Rev'd J. Adams, Cong. Chapel

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).