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 356

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
492	14 December 1892	Samuel Senby Leonora Kilfoyle	Samuel Scruby Leonora Kilfoyle 💍 1892/2851	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 30	Waiwera Parnell	6 months 30 years	Roman Catholic Church	92/3090		14 December 1892	Revd. M. Lenihan
494	14 December 1892	John Alfred Tho. Wilson Rose Ann Matthews	John Alfred Thomas Wilson Rose Ann Matthews 💍 1892/2880	Bachelor Spinster	Stockbroker, Blacksmith	22 17	Otahuhu Otahuhu	5 years 15 years	Registrars Office	92/3127	Alexr. Matthews, Father	14 December 1892	Regr. of Marriages
495	15 December 1892	Thomas Rodda Mary Joyce	Thomas Rodda Mary Joyce 💍 1892/2881	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	33 32	Kuaotunu Kuaotunu	3 years 3 years	Registrars Office	92/3128		15 December 1892	Regr. of Marriages
496	15 December 1892	Archibald Rykens Florence Hammond	Archibald Rykers Florence Hammond 💍 1892/2752	Bachelor Spinster	Gum Sorter	22 21	Auckland Devonport	6 months 21 months	Dwelling of Thos. Hammond	92/2999		15 December 1892	Revd. Ward
497	16 December 1892	John Bell Catherine Glynn Angus	John Bell Catherine Elyne Angus 💍 1892/2784	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Turner	27 28	Newton Mt. Eden	27 months 28 months	Dwelling of Mr. Isabella Angus	92/3031		16 December 1892	Revd. R. S. West
498	17 December 1892	Lewis Wm. Holiday Catherine McAdam	Lewis William Haliday Catherine McAdam 💍 1892/2837	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	29 29	Auckland Mt. Eden	3 months 2 years	The Tabernacle	92/3066		17 December 1892	Revd. J. S. Munro
499	17 December 1892	Sydney Henry Clough Hamlin Agnes Phillipson	Sydney Henry Clough Hamlin Agnes Phillipson 💍 1892/2820	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	34 34	Pokeno Onehunga	2 months 5 months	Church of St. Peter	92/3043		17 December 1892	Revd. H. Raikes

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).