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 757

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
288	13 July 1892	Thomas William Davidson Martha Annice Parritt	Thomas William Davidson Martha Annie Porritt 💍 1892/2011	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 26	Sydney Avondale	27 yrs 12 mos	Waterview Avondale	92/2076	13 July 1892	Rev C Norreys Ch of England
289	14 July 1892	George Seage Brown Elizabeth Moulton	George Ewart Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1892/1087	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 25	Maickee Mt Eden	25 yrs 9 mos	Dwelling of John Moulton	92/2077	14 July 1892	Rev R. J. West Presbyterian
290	14 July 1892	John Bell Eunice Bond	John Bell Eunice Bond 💍 1892/1947	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	36 31	Opotiki Wade	5 mos 20 yrs	Railway St, Richmond Rd	92/2053	14 July 1892	Rev F Berry Wesleyan
291	15 July 1892	Daniel Sullivan Margaret Moloughney	Daniel O'Sullivan Margaret Moloughney 💍 1892/4015	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 24	North Shore North Shore	7 mos 8 yrs	Roman Catholic Church, Panmure	92/2097	15 July 1892	Rev P. McDonald R. Catholic
292	15 July 1892	John Dobbs Alice Keenan	John Dobbs Alice Keenan 💍 1892/2003	Bachelor Spinster	Coal Miner	22 19	Whangarei Auckland	2 yrs 14 yrs	Church of St Francis, Parnell	92/2086	15 July 1892	Rev P. O'Finnegan R. Catholic
293	16 July 1892	Joseph Currie Ellen Clarke	Joseph Carrie Ellen Clarke 💍 1892/2016	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 24	Parnell Auckland	25 yrs 20 yrs	Dwelling of Andrew Clarke, Mt Eden	92/2078	16 July 1892	Rev R. J. West Presbyterian
294	18 July 1892	James Burnside Mary Roth	Thomas Burns Mary Roth 💍 1892/2002	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	29 23	Whangarei Auckland	3 yrs 16 yrs	Church of St John the Baptist, Parnell	92/2085	18 July 1892	Rev R. C. Calder Ch of England
295	18 July 1892	Albert von Freienitz Milly Atherton	Albert Van Gracvenitz Milly Atherton 💍 1892/1973	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	39 17	Auckland Waikomiti	18 yrs 6 yrs	All Saints Church, Ponsonby	92/2034	1 August 1892	Rev P. C. Calder 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).