Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 315

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
276	1 October 1870	Andrew Rankin Esther Davis	Andrew Rankin Esther Davies 💍 1870/6234	Widower Widow	Labourer	44 43	Meeanee, Napier Carlisle St, Napier	3 weeks 3 weeks	at the residence of Mr. Dungey		8 October 1870	Rev. J. Mornice
277	10 October 1870	Patrick Ready Margaret Dolan	Patrick Ready Margaret Dolan 💍 1870/6267	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Domestic	33 28	Shakespeare Rd, Napier Shakespeare Rd, Napier	3 days 2 years	at the Roman Catholic Church		10 October 1870	Rev. Father Forest
278	12 October 1870	Henry Bishop Helen Falconer	Henry Bishop Helen Falconer 💍 1870/6237	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 22	Tennyson St, Napier Tennyson St, Napier	2 years 3 days	at the residence of Mr Bishop		12 October 1870	Rev. J. Mornice
279	25 November 1870	William Thos Newlon Elizabeth McMay	William Thomas Newton Elizabeth McKay 💍 1870/6243 William Thomas MacArtney Elizabeth Powley 💍 1870/9024 William Scoon Elizabeth Mawson 💍 1870/7257	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 21	Carlyle St, Napier Hospital, Napier	14 months 5 months	at the residence of Mr Langley		25 November 1870	Rev. J. Mornice
280	29 November 1870	David Balharry Mary Louisa Mackenzie	David Balharry Mary Louisa MacKenzie 💍 1870/6246	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	29 19	Fitzroy Rd, Napier Coote Rd, Napier	9 years 14 years	at the residence of Mr Mackenzie, Coote Rd	Wharton Mackenzie (Father)	29 November 1870	Rev. J. Mornice
281	1 December 1870	William Burnet Eliza Alexander	William Burnett Eliza Alexander 💍 1870/6285	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	26 22	Porangahau, Napier Rotorua, Napier	2 years 22 years	at the Episcopalian Church		1 December 1870	Rev. J. Townsend
282	6 December 1870	George Bridges Yule Margaret Martinson	George Bridger Flint Margaret Masterton 💍 1870/6249	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Domestic	28 17	Napier Coote Road, Napier	7 years 12 years	at the residence of Mr. Beukman, Western Spit	Thomas Martinson (Father)	6 December 1870	Rev. J. Mornice

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).