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 846

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
258	20 August 1888	Isaac Shepherd Alice Murray	Isaac Shepherd Alice Murray 💍 1888/1991	Widower Spinster	Farmer	58 25	Dwelling of David [illegible] Remuera, Syd Norfolk Street	22 years	Dwelling of David [illegible]	88/2004		20 August 1888	Mr F. Aldride, Ch of Christ
259	25 August 1888	Martin Rosser Emily Ada Gertrude Casey	Martin Rosser Emily Casey 💍 1888/1947	Bachelor Spinster	Foreman	25 19	Parnell Parnell	20 years 19 years	Roman Catholic Church	88/1984	Mary Casey, mother	25 August 1888	Rev. F. Corbetto, R. Catholic
260	29 August 1888	John Moore Alice Maria McBell	John Moore Alice Maria McDell 💍 1888/2045 John Moore Lydia Maria Hine 💍 1888/1172	Bachelor Spinster	Pattern maker	25 20	Newmarket Parnell	23 years 15 years	Dwelling of Daniel Moore	88/1959	John McBell, father	29 August 1888	Rev. M. McCallum, Wesleyan
261	20 August 1888	James Anderson Jessie Cameron Moore	James Anderson Esther Georgina MacFarlane 💍 1888/3388	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	29 22	Napier Napier	9 months 22 years	Registrars Office	88/2032		20 August 1888	J. Owen Lord, Registrar
262	21 August 1888	Melville Henry Lawrence Margaret McMillan	Melville Henry Laurence Margaret McMillan 💍 1888/1953	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	30 21	Auckland Eden Terrace	2 years 2 years	Dwelling of Mrs Isabelle [illegible]	88/1990		21 August 1888	Rev. R. C. West, Presbyterian
263	4 September 1888	Joseph Cross Mary Cowang	Joseph Cross Mary Cowan 💍 1888/2046	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	29 25	Auckland Parnell	8 years 25 years	The Wesleyan Church	88/1960		4 September 1888	Rev. W. C. Catten, Wesleyan

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).