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 31 March 1865 Registrar Edward Catchpool

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

3 January 1865

Frederick Dyett
Jane Catherine Barret

Frederick Dyett
Jane Catherine Barret
💍 1865/6371

Widower
Spinster

Licensed Victualler
Nil

43
34

Clive
Clive

9 years
18 months

At the school house Clive

65/777

3 January 1865

Rev. S. Williams, Te Aute

No	45
Date of Notice	3 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Dyett	Jane Catherine Barret
	💍 1865/6371
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Licensed Victualler	Nil
Age	43	34
Dwelling Place	Clive	Clive
Length of Residence	9 years	18 months
Marriage Place	At the school house Clive
Folio	65/777
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. S. Williams, Te Aute

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 Meanee Flat , Tutae Kuri, Napier

65/788

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 Meanee Flat , Tutae Kuri, Napier
Folio	65/788
Consent	John Baty brother in law & guardian
Date of Certificate	12 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. P. Barclay Napier

17 January 1865

William Alward
Eliza Cork

William Atward
Phoebe Cork
💍 1865/9649

Widower
Spinster

Ropemaker
Domestic Servant

40
21

Waghorn St Napier
Shakespeare Road

8 days
6 months

At the Residence of the Registrar of Marriages Napier

65/789

17 January 1865

Registrar of Marriages, Napier

No	47
Date of Notice	17 January 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Alward	Eliza Cork
BDM Match (69%)	William Atward	Phoebe Cork
	💍 1865/9649
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Ropemaker	Domestic Servant
Age	40	21
Dwelling Place	Waghorn St Napier	Shakespeare Road
Length of Residence	8 days	6 months
Marriage Place	At the Residence of the Registrar of Marriages Napier
Folio	65/789
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 January 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Napier

9 February 1865

John Henry Baldwin
Mary Ann Loney

John Henry Baldwin
Mary Ann Loney
💍 1865/6404

Bachelor
Spinster

Sheepowner
Nil

28
24

Tutae Kuri
Meanee Flat, Tutae Kuri

1 Month
4 Months

At the residence of Mr Edmund Tuke, Meanee Flat, Tutae Kuri

65/792

9 February 1865

Rev. Dr Saywell, Napier

No	48
Date of Notice	9 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Henry Baldwin	Mary Ann Loney
	💍 1865/6404
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sheepowner	Nil
Age	28	24
Dwelling Place	Tutae Kuri	Meanee Flat, Tutae Kuri
Length of Residence	1 Month	4 Months
Marriage Place	At the residence of Mr Edmund Tuke, Meanee Flat, Tutae Kuri
Folio	65/792
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr Saywell, Napier

10 February 1865

Osmer Bridger
Sarah Ann McClutchie

Osmer Bridger
Sarah Ann McClutchie
💍 1865/6398

Bachelor
Spinster

Shepherd
Nil

25
17

Waimaiama
Cape Kidnappers

1 year
8 months

Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier

65/790

Sarah Russell, Guardian

10 February 1865

Registrar of Marriages Napier

No	49
Date of Notice	10 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Osmer Bridger	Sarah Ann McClutchie
	💍 1865/6398
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd	Nil
Age	25	17
Dwelling Place	Waimaiama	Cape Kidnappers
Length of Residence	1 year	8 months
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier
Folio	65/790
Consent	Sarah Russell, Guardian
Date of Certificate	10 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages 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 1908. 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).