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 827

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
381	6 September 1886	Edward Francis Barnard Agnes Beatrice Walford	Edward Francis Barnard Agnes Beatrice Walker 💍 1886/1932	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 21	Auckland Mt Roskill	3 years 20 years	St Sepulchre's Church, Kyber Pass	86/1898		6 September 1886	Rev B. T. Dudley Ch of Eng
382	6 September 1886	Charles Freeman Earle Ellen Trimble	Charles Freeman Mark Ellen Trimble 💍 1886/2596	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	26 25	Northcote Devonport	2 years 3 years	The Presbyterian Church	86/2555		6 September 1886	Rev J. A. McCallum
383	7 September 1886	George Damon Blampied Edith Frankham	George Harmon Blampied Edith Frankham 💍 1886/1918	Widower Spinster	Mariner	31 18	Devonport Symonds St	4 years 10 years	Registrar's Office	86/1896	Walter Frankham, Father	7 September 1886	J. Owen Laishley, Regr
384	7 September 1886	William Henry Edwardes Elizabeth Clarke	William Henry Edwards Elizabeth Clark 💍 1886/1940 William Barnes Elizabeth Coulter 💍 1886/1740 William Paul Davies Elizabeth Beehre 💍 1886/1057 William Naylor Jenkins Elizabeth Drake 💍 1886/1227	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	25 25	Newton Onehunga	3 years 25 years	Dwelling House of Peter Clarke, Normanby Rd	86/1905		7 September 1886	Rev W. R. Taylor, Wesleyan
385	7 September 1886	James Flanagan Ann Fisher	James Halliard Thornton Annie Fisher 💍 1886/2445	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 27	Parnell Parnell	5 years 5 years	Roman Catholic Church	86/1927		7 September 1886	Right Rev Dr Luck, R. Catholic
386	11 September 1886	Harrison Pothan Elizabeth Davis	Harrison Rotherham Elizabeth Davis 💍 1886/2003	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 22	Mt Eden Hamilton	7 years 2 years	Church of England, Hamilton	86/1971		11 September 1886	Rev R. R. Biggs, Ch of Eng
387	14 September 1886	James Edward Cullen Jane Annette Years	James Edward Cullen Jane Annette Yeats 💍 1886/1952	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk in Holy Orders	34 24	Westford Remuera	14 months 8 months	St Mark's Church	86/1918		14 September 1886	Rev Archdeacon Maunsell, Ch of Eng

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).