Intentions to Marry, 1867

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840379, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 279

District of Napier Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
169	18 Octr 1867	William Whitby Eliza Davis	William Drieberg Eliza Davies 💍 1867/6460	bachelor minor	Cook Milliner	27 19	White Road Napier Carlisle Street Napier	1 year 1 year	Church Napier	918		18 Oct 67	Rev J. Brisco
170	23 Oct 1867	Abraham Skillicorn Elizabeth Ann Briggs	Abraham Skillicorn Elizabeth Ross Briggs 💍 1867/6466	bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Servant	29 19	Meanee Meanee & Taradale	2 years 1 year	J. B. Bourne	920	John Briggs, Father	23 Oct 67	Rev J. Brisco
171	30 Oct 1867	Edward Butler Annie Miller	Edward Butler Annie Miller 💍 1867/6463	bachelor Widow	Laborer Dressmaker	31 33	White Road Napier White Road Napier	3 years at Port Napier do	do	919		30 Octr	Rev J. Brisco
172	8 Nov 67	James Stephen Davies Isabella Fernie		bachelor Spinster	Merchant none	25 23	The Greanu do	3 years 7 mo's	J. Brisco's Greanu	921		8 Nov 67	Rev J.J. MacKerchar
173	22 Nov 67	John Antram Hannah Buckley	John Carpenter Hannah Hickey 💍 1867/5752	bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper nil	30 24	Meanee The Spit Napier	6 years 8 months	Church Napier	910		22 Nov 67	P. Rev J. Trush
174	23 Nov 67	Charles Dunfry Elizabeth Davies	Charles Dunfoy Elizabeth Davies 💍 1867/6469	bachelor Spinster	American nil	27 19	White Road Napier White Road Napier	3 years 6 months	at residence	921	Father David Davies	23 Nov 67	Rev G. Morice
175	25 Nov 67	Joseph Puddephy Charlotte Allen	Joseph Fritchley Charlotte Allen 💍 1867/6511	bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant nil	23 17	Clive Napier Clive	1 year 6 years	at Clive	930	James Allen Father	26 Nov	Rev J. Townsend
176	18 Dec 67	Benjamin Arthur Verne Theresa Elizabeth Helen Wilson	Bingham Arthur Ferard Theodosia Elizabeth Helen Wilson 💍 1867/6514	bachelor Spinster		38 40	Napier do	5 months 4 years	Episcopalian Church Napier	927		18 Dec	Rev J. Townsend

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 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).