Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 349

District of Napier Town & Suburbs Quarter ending 31 March 1873

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
381	7 January 1873	Joseph Crompton Mary Casey	Joseph Crompton Mary Ann Casey 💍 1873/6271	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 27	Napier Napier	3 days 8 months	Residence of Rev. D. Sidey, Napier	73/493		7 January 1873	Rev. D. Sidey
382	8 January 1873	William Mitchell Ellen Dunne	William Mitchell Ellen Dunn 💍 1873/4599	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant Domestic	29 26	Napier Napier	2½ years 6 years	Residence of Rev. D. Sidey, Napier	M73/494		8 January 1873	Rev. D. Sidey
383	9 January 1873	Alfred Country Pratt Anna Glazebrook	Alfred Courtney Pratt Anna Glasebrook 💍 1873/6274	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	26 20	Napier Napier	16 months 16 years	Residence of W. A. C. Pratt, Napier	M93/49	Henry Glazebrook, father		Rev. D. Sidey
384	10 January 1873	Michael Alexander Johanna Jorgensen	"No marriage"	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Domestic	29 25	Napier Napier	3 weeks 2½ months	Episcopalian ChurchNapier		No Marriage	10 January 1873	Rev. J. Townsend
385	14 January 1873	James Johnson Annie McLammon	James Johnson Annie McLennan 💍 1873/6277	Bachelor Spinster	Stevedore Domestic	40 22	Napier Napier	4 years 1 year	Residence of Mr. Roach, Napier	M93/496		14 January 1873	Rev. D. Sidey
387	17 January 1873	Henry Hickey Catherine Rollo	Henry Hickey Catherine Rollo 💍 1873/5503	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	25 18	Clive Clive	3 days 3 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	73/23	John Rollo, father	17 January 1873	The Registrar of Marriages
388	21 January 1873	James Chinnside Martha Thomson	James Chirnside Martha Thomson 💍 1873/6280	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic	24 26	Koaunu Kaimia	3 years 1 year	Residence of Rev. D. Sidey, Napier	73/497		21 January 1873	Rev. D. Sidey
389	29 January 1873	Joseph Benjamin Rogan Mary Louisa Thomas	Joseph Benjamin Rogers Mary Louisa Thomas 💍 1873/6283	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Domestic	22 22	Napier Napier	4 years 6 years	Residence of Mr. Driberg, Napier	M73/498		29 January 1873	Rev. D. Sidey
390	4 February 1873	Adolf Theodor Forstensen Andrine Marie Hanson	Adolf Theodor Jorstenson Andrine Maria Hansen 💍 1873/5479	Bachelor Spinster	Navvy Domestic	22 21	Napier Napier	4 months 4 months	Episcopalian Church Napier	73/225		4 February 1873	Rev. J. Townsend

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).