Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 283

District of Napier Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
325	1 January 1872	George John Sellars Emma O'Brien	George Sellars Emma O Brien 💍 1872/5199	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	21 18	Carlisle St Napier Carlisle St Napier	7 years 6 months	Roman Catholic Church Napier	972	Cornelius O'Brien (Guardian)	1 January 1872	Rev Father Forest
326	3 January 1872	John Somerville Mary Parnell		Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster Nil	36 24	West Clive Napier West Clive Napier	3 years 1 year	School room West Clive	1190		3 January 1872	Rev. W.D. Redstone
327	8 January 1872	Barnabas Gilmore Anna Holden		Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Domestic	26 24	The Spit Napier The Spit Napier	6 months 6 Months	Roman Catholic Church Napier	1202		8 January 1872	Rev Father Regnier
328	10 January 1872	Charles Maloney Mary George	Charles Moloney Mary Henze 💍 1872/5202 Charles Roland Mary Keane 💍 1872/7472 Charles Falconer Mary Fraser 💍 1872/7019 Charles James Hill Mary Horne 💍 1872/5364 Charles Lyon Mary Cox 💍 1872/4500	Widower Spinster	Warder Domestic	36 36	Napier Gaol Carlyle Rd Napier	10 years 17 years	Roman Catholic Church Napier	1191		10 January 1872	Rev Father Forest
329	26 January 1872	Thomas Warrington Agnes Duthie	Thomas Warrington Agnes Buttler 💍 1872/5223	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Nil	31 24	The Spit Napier The Spit Napier	8 years 14 years	residence of Bride, The Spit	1198		26 January 1872	Rev Father Forest
330	9 February 1872	Cornelius Dempsey Ellen Nicol	Cornelius Dempsey Hellen Nicol 💍 1872/5226	Bachelor Spinster	Mill Man Dressmaker	24 22	Taranaki Napier Taranaki Napier	7 years 6 months	residence of J. Nicol, Taranaki, Napier	1199		9 February 1872	Rev G. Morris
331	13 February 1872	Lamblem William Carter Fanny Emily Villers	Lambton W Frederick Carter Fanny Emily Viller 💍 1872/5205	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer Nil	24 16	Park Island Napier Spit Napier	20 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church Napier	1192	Priscilla Villers (Mother)	13 February 1872	Rev Father Forest
332	20 February 1872	Alexander Robb Ann Frizelle	Alexander Robb Anne Fullarton 💍 1872/5244	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Nil	34 30	Havelock N.Z. Shakespeare Rd Napier	2 years 14 days	residence of Bride	1206		20 February 1872	Rev. D. Shephord
333	20 February 1872	Walter John Caulfield Isabella Annard Bryce	Walter John Caulton Isabella Barnard Hare 💍 1872/5292	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Nil	24 19	Hastings St Napier Shakespeare St Napier	2 days 2 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages	1222	John Bryce (Father)	20 February 1872	Registrar of Marriages

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).