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 754

District of Auckland Quarter ending 30 September 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
312	28 July 1892	Sidney Sivires Selina Jane Springall		Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	33 22	Gisborne North Shore	2 years 6 weeks	Holy Trinity Church	92/2070		28 July 1892	Revd. F. Bates, Ch of England
313	28 July 1892	William Armstrong Selina Jane Tomson	William Armstrong Selina Jane Tomson 💍 1892/1972	Bachelor Widow	Contractor	39 32	Napier Napier	8 years 8 years	Church of All Saints, Ponsonby	92/2033		28 July 1892	Revd. M. Calder, Ch of England
314	28 July 1892	Alfred Hom Whitworth Mary Hanson	Alfred John Wadsworth Mary Hansen 💍 1892/1977	Widower Spinster	Farmer	43 20	Parnell Auckland	2 years 9 months	Registrars Office	92/2109	Mary Hanson, mother	28 July 1892	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
315	29 July 1892	Charles Frederick Nicholas Jane Hannah Soldier	Charles Frederick Nicholas Jane Hannah Goldie 💍 1892/1933	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	21 18	Ponsonby Ponsonby	7 years 8 years	James Soldier's Dwelling	92/2063	James Soldier, father	29 July 1892	Revd. H. Macleod, Presbyterian
316	30 July 1892	Cecil Clock Mary Sophia Hay	Cecil Stock Mary Sophia Hayr 💍 1892/2005 Cecil Stock Mary Gerrard 💍 1892/718	Widower Spinster	Farmer	31 26	Waiuku Epsom	8 years 26 years	James Hay's Dwelling	92/2088		30 July 1892	Revd. C. N. Lewis
317	30 July 1892	William Hutchen Mary Douglas Barnes	William Hutchem Mary Douglas Barnaby 💍 1892/2017	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	39 29	Buckland Kingsland	22 years 6 months	The Presbyterian Manse	92/2079		30 July 1892	Revd. J. D. Ness, Presbyterian
318	3 August 1892	John Martinson Rosa Florence Jones	Johan Martinsen Rosa Florance Jones 💍 1892/1978	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 20	Auckland Auckland	6 weeks 3 years	Registrars Office	92/2110	Walter August Jones, father	3 August 1892	J. Owen Lord, Regr.
319	5 August 1892	George William Elliott Jane Caldwell McReish	George William Elliott Jane Caldwell McNeish 💍 1892/1979	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 19	Mercer Pokeno	12 years 19 years	Registrars Office	92/2111	William Caldwell McReish, father	5 August 1892	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).