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 1543

District of Auckland Quarter ending 31 March 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
57	8 February 1892	Francis Dickinson Maryann Wadsworth		Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	21 18	Parnell Parnell	4 years 8 months	Dwelling of Alfred Wadsworth	92/155	Alfred Wadsworth, Father	8 February 1892	Revd J. Sharp, Wesleyan
58	8 February 1892	Ormerod Karl Riding Ellen Rose Whitehead	Hermann Karl Ridings Ellen Rose Whitehead 💍 1892/144	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	24 20	Raco Raco	3 years 2 years	Dwelling of George Tank	92/61	George Tank, Father	8 February 1892	Revd J. Chew, Congregationalist
59	9 February 1892	George Fenton McCullagh Sarah Nelson McClelland	George Fenton McCullagh Sarah Wilson McClelland 💍 1892/373	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	31 30	Hamilton Auckland	10 years 7 years	Church of St James	92/105		9 February 1892	Revd R. Macniel, Presbyterian
60	9 February 1892	William Robert Morien Mary Margaret O'Hanlon	William Robert O'Brien Mary Margaret O'Connor 💍 1892/176 William Edward Holder Mary Margaret Lockwood 💍 1892/977	Bachelor Spinster	Setter	20 21	Auckland Auckland	20 years 7 years	The Baptist Church	92/97	Mary O'Hanlon, Mother	9 February 1892	Revd D. Case, Baptist
61	10 February 1892	Francis Augustus Tait Ada Crook	Francis Augustus Tait Ada Crook 💍 1892/188	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 20	Gisborne Richmond	5 years 13 years	Registrars Office	92/135	George Crook, Father	10 February 1892	J. Owen Lord, Regr
62	11 February 1892	George Inglis Elizabeth Queenie Inglis		Bachelor Spinster	Millhand	27 25	Helensville Helensville	8 years 6 months	Registrars Office	92/136		11 February 1892	J. Owen Lord, Regr
63	11 February 1892	Thomas Murphyt Mary Ann Graham	Thomas Murphy Mary Ann Oram 💍 1892/190	Bachelor Spinster	Setter	34 30	Morrinsville Ponsonby	10 months 2 years	Registrars Office	92/137		11 February 1892	J. Owen Lord, Regr
64	12 February 1892	William Joseph Newton Amelia Bethia Johnson	William Joseph Newton Amelia Bethia Johnson 💍 1892/2689	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	39 25	Onehunga Parnell	4 months 25 years	Church of St Peter	92/2922		12 February 1892	Revd J. Preston, Ch of England

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).