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 1536

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
112	18 March 1892	William Dobson Emily Swindells	William Osborn Thompson Emily Swindail 💍 1892/141	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Spinster	25 21	Te Kaka Birkenhead	3 years 12 years	Church of St John the Baptist, Northcote	92/33		18 March 1892	Revd. W. W. Davies Ch of England
113	19 March 1892	James Pryor Emily Jane Cole	James Pryor Emily Jane Cole 💍 1892/133	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Spinster	23 21	Ponsonby Ponsonby	21 months 21 years	Church of St Paul	92/46		19 March 1892	Revd. W. M. Nelson Ch of England
114	19 March 1892	Patrick Moloughney Helena Scanaway	Patrick Moloughney Helena Stanaway 💍 1892/370	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Spinster	28 21	Nairoa North Nairoa North	4 years 21 years	Church of St Patrick	92/102		19 March 1892	Revd. J. O'Rachell R. Catholic
115	21 March 1892	George Edwin Rawley Charlotte Jane Cottell	George Edwin Crawley Charlotte Jane Cottingham 💍 1892/1030	Bachelor Spinster	Person Spinster	26 22	Auckland Newton	4 months 22 years	Baptist Tabernacle	92/1001		21 March 1892	Revd. B. J. Dudley Ch of England
116	21 March 1892	Joseph Telford Helena Ruge	Joseph Halford Helena Ruge 💍 1892/717	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Spinster	22 16	Auckland Auckland	6 years 16 years	Registrars Office	92/153	Christian Ruge, father of bride	21 March 1892	J. Owen Lord Regr
117	22 March 1892	Francis Cornell Mary Catherine Perry	Francis Cornell Mary Catherine Perry 💍 1892/808	Bachelor Spinster	Valet Spinster	24 24	Auckland Auckland	5 weeks 5 weeks	St Matthews Church	92/889		22 March 1892	Revd. L. W. Durham Ch of England
118	22 March 1892	Cecil Stock Mary Gerrard	Cecil Stock Mary Gerrard 💍 1892/718	Widower Spinster	Farmer Spinster	30 24	Naiuku North Shore	4 years 5 years	Registrars Office	92/154		22 March 1892	J. Owen Lord Regr
119	23 March 1892	Henry Morton Isabelle McMillan	Henry Morton Isabella McMillan 💍 1892/168	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Spinster	27 23	Auckland Auckland	7 years 7 years	Church of the Holy Sepulchre	92/85		23 March 1892	Revd. B. J. Dudley 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).