Intentions to Marry, 1892

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840404, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 28 2025

Page 369

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 December 1892

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
416	21 October 1892	David Maxwell Gibson Annie Maud Hays		Bachelor Spinster	Stockkeeper Spinster	22 22	Birkenhead Epsom	2 years 22 years	Dwelling of James Hays, Epsom			21 October 1892	Rev. C. H. Laws
418	25 October 1892	Thomas Blong Through Jane Miller	Thomas Blong Margaret Jane Miller 💍 1892/2863	Widower Spinster	Groom Spinster	28 25	Seddonville Pukekohe	5 years 25 years	Registrars Office	92/3109		25 October 1892	Registrar of Marriages
419	26 October 1892	Benjamin Arthur Kayes Annie Demaris Clarke	Benjamin Arthur Kayes Annie Demaris Clarke 💍 1892/2827	Bachelor Spinster	Coml. Traveller Spinster	23 24	Kingsland Kingsland	7 years 8 years	Wesleyan Church, Pitt Street	92/3074		26 October 1892	Rev. G. Berry
420	26 October 1892	Wm. Henry Howard Francis Eleanor Cannell	William Henry Howard Frances Eleanor Cannell 💍 1892/2824	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk Spinster	22 24	Auckland Auckland	22 years 12 years	Dwelling of Rev. J. G. Hackett, Wyndham Street	92/3047		27 October 1892	Rev. J. G. Hackett
421	27 October 1892	Gordon Wallace Beare Mary Bordcott Taylor	Gordon Wallace Bews Mary Boulcott Taylor 💍 1892/2800	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Officer Spinster	30 30	Parnell Tamaki	5 years 30 years	St. Davids Church, Symonds Street	92/3023		27 October 1892	Rev. R. S. West
422	29 October 1892	John Porter Mary Christina McColl McDonald	John Porter Mary Christina McColl McDonald 💍 1892/2777	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	23 21	Homai Homai	1 month 16 years	Dwelling of Wm. Staremake, Arawa Street	92/3024		29 October 1892	Rev. R. S. West
423	29 October 1892	John Henry Adams Frances Elizabeth Cherry	John Henry Adams Frances Elizabeth Cherry 💍 1892/2756	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Spinster	24 20	Auckland Newton	24 years 10 years	Church of St. Sepulchre, Khyber Pass	92/3003	Frances Cherry, mother	29 October 1892	Rev. B. T. Dudley

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).