1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 223

District of Napier Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

23 January 1865

Frederick [UNCLEAR]ayh
Ann Chambers

Widower
Spinster

[UNCLEAR]
[UNCLEAR]

45
24

Clive
Clive

9 years
6 months

Clive School

777

25 January 1865

Rev. S. Williams Clive

No	45
Date of Notice	23 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick [UNCLEAR]ayh	Ann Chambers
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	[UNCLEAR]	[UNCLEAR]
Age	45	24
Dwelling Place	Clive	Clive
Length of Residence	9 years	6 months
Marriage Place	Clive School
Folio	777
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Williams Clive

11 January 1865

Colin Campbell
Eliza Williams

Colin Campbell
Eliza Williams
💍 1865/6395

Bachelor
Spinster

Licenced victualler
Domestic Servant

26
19

Hastings St Napier
Shakespeare Flat Napier

1 week
1 week

At the residence of Mr John Baty ? Flat ? Napier

788

John Baty brother in law & guardian

12 January 1865

Rev. P. Barclay Napier

No	46
Date of Notice	11 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Colin Campbell	Eliza Williams
	💍 1865/6395
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Licenced victualler	Domestic Servant
Age	26	19
Dwelling Place	Hastings St Napier	Shakespeare Flat Napier
Length of Residence	1 week	1 week
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr John Baty ? Flat ? Napier
Folio	788
Consent	John Baty brother in law & guardian
Date of Certificate	12 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Barclay Napier

17 February 1865

William Alward
Eliza Bell

William Chevus Wilkins
Eliza Wells
💍 1865/6761

William Lockhart
Eliza Gray
💍 1865/9385

Widower
Spinster

[UNCLEAR]
Domestic Servant

40
21

Napier St Napier
Shakespeare St Napier

8 days
6 months

Residence of the Registrar of Marriages Napier

789

19 February 1865

[UNCLEAR]

No	47
Date of Notice	17 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alward	Eliza Bell
BDM Match (61%)	William Chevus Wilkins	Eliza Wells
	💍 1865/6761
BDM Match (61%)	William Lockhart	Eliza Gray
	💍 1865/9385
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	[UNCLEAR]	Domestic Servant
Age	40	21
Dwelling Place	Napier St Napier	Shakespeare St Napier
Length of Residence	8 days	6 months
Marriage Place	Residence of the Registrar of Marriages Napier
Folio	789
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 February 1865
Officiating Minister	[UNCLEAR]

9 February 1865

John Henry Bathwin
Mary Ann Elary

John Henry Baldwin
Mary Ann Loney
💍 1865/6404

Bachelor
Spinster

[UNCLEAR]

28
24

Tuka Kuri
Meanee Flat Tuka Kuri

1 Month
4 Months

Clive Church Tuka Kuri

792

13 February 1865

Rev. B. Daywell Napier

No	48
Date of Notice	9 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Bathwin	Mary Ann Elary
BDM Match (80%)	John Henry Baldwin	Mary Ann Loney
	💍 1865/6404
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession		[UNCLEAR]
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Tuka Kuri	Meanee Flat Tuka Kuri
Length of Residence	1 Month	4 Months
Marriage Place	Clive Church Tuka Kuri
Folio	792
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Daywell Napier

10 February 1865

Omar Bridger
Sarah Ann [UNCLEAR]

Osmer Bridger
Sarah Ann McClutchie
💍 1865/6398

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
[UNCLEAR]

25
17

Waimahaca
Cape Kidnappers

1 year
8 months

Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier

790

Sarah [UNCLEAR] Guardian of [UNCLEAR] Napier

13 February 1865

Rev. B. Daywell Napier

No	49
Date of Notice	10 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Omar Bridger	Sarah Ann [UNCLEAR]
BDM Match (67%)	Osmer Bridger	Sarah Ann McClutchie
	💍 1865/6398
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	[UNCLEAR]
Age	25	17
Dwelling Place	Waimahaca	Cape Kidnappers
Length of Residence	1 year	8 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier
Folio	790
Consent	Sarah [UNCLEAR] Guardian of [UNCLEAR] Napier
Date of Certificate	13 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. B. Daywell Napier

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).