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 230

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 1865

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

30 August 1865

George Henry Swan
Mary Ann Ashton

George Swan
Mary Ann Ashton
💍 1865/9652

Bachelor
Spinster

Photographer
Nil

28
17

Shakespear Road Napier
Shakespear Road Napier

1 year
1 year

At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier

65/821

James Ashton Father

30 August 1865

Registrar of Marriages Napier

No	75
Date of Notice	30 August 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	George Henry Swan	Mary Ann Ashton
BDM Match (82%)	George Swan	Mary Ann Ashton
	💍 1865/9652
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Photographer	Nil
Age	28	17
Dwelling Place	Shakespear Road Napier	Shakespear Road Napier
Length of Residence	1 year	1 year
Marriage Place	At the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier
Folio	65/821
Consent	James Ashton Father
Date of Certificate	30 August 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Napier

31 August 1865

Albert Edwin Cresswell
Sarah Ann Reynolds

Albert Edwin Cresswell
Sarah Ann Reynolds
💍 1865/6485

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk Post Office
Nil

21
18

Milton Road Napier
Clive

2 years
1 1/2 years

At the Episcopalian Church Napier

65/822

Jane Hamilton, sister to, Guardian, Clive

31 August 1865

Revd Dr Saywell Napier

No	76
Date of Notice	31 August 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Albert Edwin Cresswell	Sarah Ann Reynolds
	💍 1865/6485
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk Post Office	Nil
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Milton Road Napier	Clive
Length of Residence	2 years	1 1/2 years
Marriage Place	At the Episcopalian Church Napier
Folio	65/822
Consent	Jane Hamilton, sister to, Guardian, Clive
Date of Certificate	31 August 1865
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Saywell Napier

31 August 1865

John Hague
Margaret Roberts

John Jackson Hague
Margaret Roberts
💍 1865/6488

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher
Nil

23
22

Clive
Clive

5 years
1 year

At the Episcopalian Church. Napier

65/823

31 August 1865

Rev. Dr Saywell Napier

No	77
Date of Notice	31 August 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Hague	Margaret Roberts
BDM Match (78%)	John Jackson Hague	Margaret Roberts
	💍 1865/6488
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher	Nil
Age	23	22
Dwelling Place	Clive	Clive
Length of Residence	5 years	1 year
Marriage Place	At the Episcopalian Church. Napier
Folio	65/823
Consent
Date of Certificate	31 August 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr Saywell Napier

20 September 1865

William Campion
Mary Ann Wigley

[No matching marriage registration has been located]

Widower
Spinster

FarmLaborer
Domestic Servant

45
30

Clive
Clive

6 months
6 months

At the Episcopalian Church. Napier

20 September 1865

Rev. Dr Saywell Napier

No	78
Date of Notice	20 September 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Campion	Mary Ann Wigley
	💍 [No matching marriage registration has been located]
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	FarmLaborer	Domestic Servant
Age	45	30
Dwelling Place	Clive	Clive
Length of Residence	6 months	6 months
Marriage Place	At the Episcopalian Church. Napier
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Dr Saywell Napier

20 September 1865

Henry John Cotterill
Esther Sillcox

Henry John Cotterill
Esther Sillcox
💍 1865/6491

Widower
Widow

Laborer
Domestic Servant

43
39

Carlyle Street Napier
Faraday Street Napier

7 years
4 years

At the Residence of Dr. Hitching's Faraday St. Napier

65/824

20 September 1865

Rev. P Barclay Napier

No	79
Date of Notice	20 September 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry John Cotterill	Esther Sillcox
	💍 1865/6491
Condition	Widower	Widow
Profession	Laborer	Domestic Servant
Age	43	39
Dwelling Place	Carlyle Street Napier	Faraday Street Napier
Length of Residence	7 years	4 years
Marriage Place	At the Residence of Dr. Hitching's Faraday St. Napier
Folio	65/824
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 September 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. P Barclay 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).