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 066

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
148	22 March 1886	Joseph Viscovich Alice Trustone	Joseph Viscovich Alice Freestone 💍 1886/298	Widower Spinster	Fruiterer Spinster	42 30	Auckland Auckland	13 months 12 years	St Patricks Cathedral	86/101	22 March 1886	Rev. J. Luckwell, Roman Catholic
149	26 March 1886	John Watson Ellen Hoyllie	John Watson Ellen Wyllie 💍 1886/293 John Watson Alice Chamberlain 💍 1886/417 John Watson Olive Rogers 💍 1886/1579	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	27 28	Papatoetoe Papatoetoe	27 months 14 months	Dwelling of Mr. Thos. Hoyllie	86/80	26 March 1886	Rev. J. Mackey, Presbyterian
150	27 March 1886	Andrew Patterson Mary McFarlane	Andrew Petterson Mary McFarlane 💍 1886/20	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Spinster	24 24	Mt. Eden Auckland	13 months 13 months	Registrar's Office	86/140	27 March 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
151	29 March 1886	William Polkinghorne Anita Gross	William Polkinghorne Anita Grose 💍 1886/319	Widower Widow	Farmer Widow	65 46	Whangaparaoa Auckland	9 years 5 months	Registrar's Office	86/157	29 March 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
152	30 March 1886	John Burns Jane Currie	James Fraser Jane Currie 💍 1887/2189	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Spinster	32 52	North Shore Auckland	1 month 4 years	Registrar's Office	86/152	30 March 1886	J. Owen Lord, Reg.
153	31 March 1886	George Partington Eleanor Davis	George Partington Eleanor Davis 💍 1886/261	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Spinster	37 29	Pt. Chevalier Ponsonby	3 months 14 days	Dwelling of Mr. Walter Bartley	86/52	31 March 1886	Rev. J. Prinifold
154	31 March 1886	James Stephens Annie Catherine Boyes	James Stephens Annie Catherine Boyes 💍 1886/1125 James Stephens Anne Catherine Boyes 💍 1886/1106	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner Spinster	21 21	Union St. Shelly Beach	8 years 5 months	St Marys Church, Ponsonby	86/995	31 March 1886	Rev. W. Macdonald, Roman Catholic

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).