Intentions to Marry, 1890

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840402, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 846

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 1880

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
352	10 September 1880	James Murdoch Alice Watson	James Murdoch Alice Watson 💍 1890/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Valuemaker	30 26	Newton Avondale	[illegible] 2 years	The Presbyterian Manse	90/1973		10 September 1880	Rev. C. C. Matthews
353	10 September 1880	William Henry Elizabeth Street	William Henry Boyens Elizabeth Dermott 💍 1891/3116 John William Harris Elizabeth Stretch 💍 1891/3515 William Bond Elizabeth Pickup 💍 1890/2927 William Jones Elizabeth Dowdall 💍 1891/2982 William Henry Bryan Elizabeth Wealleans 💍 1890/1159 William Alexander Pye Elizabeth Kerr 💍 1890/1214 William Ferguson Elizabeth Fowler 💍 1890/916 William Paterson Elizabeth Lermor 💍 1890/492 William Henry Benbow Elizabeth Spence Mowat 💍 1890/2794 William Riley Elizabeth Alice Hawke 💍 1890/3648 William Dall Elizabeth Somerville 💍 1890/1372 William Austin Elizabeth Smithyman 💍 1890/207	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Painter	23 22	Auckland Auckland	4 years [illegible]	Dwelling House	90/1969		10 September 1880	Rev. J. Owen
354	11 September 1880	John Henderson Emily Jane Ward	John Henderson Emma Porter 💍 1890/513	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	30 31	Auckland Parnell	3 years 12 years	St. Mary's Cathedral	90/1967		11 September 1880	Rev. F. B. Preston
355	12 September 1880	William Carter Eliza Shaw	William Carter Eliza Shaw 💍 1890/2134	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 21	Waikomiti Waikomiti	13 years 9 years	Dwelling House	90/1972		12 September 1880	Rev. P. C. Mayboys
356	13 September 1880	Charles Linard Agnes Murray	Charles Simons Agnes Murray 💍 1890/2339	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	33 30	Matakana Devonport	8 months 5 months	Registrar's Office	90/2054		13 September 1880	J. Owen
357	13 September 1880	Benjamin Henry Martha Alice Neal	Benjamin Henry Bishop Martha Alice Neal 💍 1890/3384	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 22	Northern Wairoa Napier	4 years 2 years	Dwelling House	90/2320		13 September 1880	Rev. P. C. E. Beecroft
358	13 September 1880	Alexander McGregor Edith Alice Wright	Alexander John McGregor Edith Alice Wright 💍 1890/2150	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 19	Whangarei Auckland	10 years 10 years	Elizabeth Street, Peter Place, Dwelling House	90/1988	Jane Wright, mother	13 September 1880	Rev. R. F. Fenwick

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).