Intentions to Marry, 1888

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840400, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 441

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 June 1888

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
190	9 April 1888	Henry Roscheville Carlos Skardon Mary Isabel Burgess	Henry Roscheville Carlos Skardon Mary Isabel Burgess 💍 1888/988	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller Painter	29 19	North Shore North Shore	2 yrs 19 yrs	Holy Trinity Church	88/960	Isaac James Burgess, Father	9 April 1888	Rev. J. Bates, Ch of England
191	10 April 1888	Robert Killip Ellen Mahaney	Robert Killip Ellen Mahoney 💍 1888/1063	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist Road	27 22	Brighton Parnell Road	7 yrs 20 yrs	St. Andrews Church	88/991		10 April 1888	Rev. A. Carrick, Presbyterian
192	10 April 1888	Patrick Forbes Russell Christina Ross	Patrick Forbes Russell Christina Ross 💍 1888/93	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Hobsonville	27 25	Mahurangi Kaiwaka	26 yrs 25 yrs	Dwelling House C. Robertson	88/933		10 April 1888	Rev. R. F. Macneil, Presbyterian
193	11 April 1888	George Frederick Kelly Elizabeth Jerrish	George Frederick Kelly Elizabeth Gerrish 💍 1888/1095	Bachelor Spinster	Settler Auckland	35 22	Mt. Eden Grey Street	35 yrs 27 yrs	Registrars Office	88/1023		11 April 1888	J. Owen Lord, Regr
194	11 April 1888	John Calnan Annie Sarah Moore	John Calnan Annie Sarah Moore 💍 1888/1096	Widower Spinster	Hairdresser Auckland	33 19	Grey Street Pitt Street	2 yrs 4 yrs	Registrars Office	88/1024	Annie Sarah Moore, Mother	11 April 1888	J. Owen Lord, Regr
195	11 April 1888	William Alma Cramond Jane Chapman	William Alma Cramond Jane Chapman 💍 1888/1097	Bachelor Spinster	Pensioner Pensioner	22 21	Parnell Parnell	2 yrs 2 yrs	Registrars Office	88/1025		11 April 1888	J. Owen Lord, Regr
196	12 April 1888	Charles James Cumming Mary Ann Campbell	Charles James Cumming Mary Ann Campbell 💍 1888/1098	Widower Widow	Groom Auckland	48 33	Tamaki Tamaki	8 yrs 15 yrs	Registrars Office	88/1026		12 April 1888	J. Owen Lord, Regr

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).