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 357

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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
423	7 July 1873	William Wilkie Mary Elizabeth Harding	William Wilkie Mary Elizabeth Harding 💍 1873/8083	Widower Spinster	Telegraphist	33 20	Napier Napier	1/2 year 8 years	Residence of Mr Harding	73/1108	Thomas Bennick, Father	7 July 1873	Rev. A. B. Redstone
424	8 July 1873	Henry Games Warren Elizabeth Ann Pritchard	Henry Games Warren Elizabeth Ann Pritchard 💍 1873/8068	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	37 18	Havelock Napier	5 years 11 years	Episcopalian Church, Napier	73/1103		8 July 1873	Rev. J. Downes
425	11 July 1873	Stephen Larkee Ellen Hanour	Stephen Larkin Ellen Hansen 💍 1873/8035	Bachelor Spinster	Drill Smith Domestic	36 26	Napier Napier	3 years 10 months	Roman Catholic Church, Napier	73/1092		11 July 1873	Rev. Father Forest
426	12 July 1873	Alfred Morton Moon Levinia Rowe	Alfred Morton Moore Livinia Rowe 💍 1873/8050	Bachelor Spinster	Constable Domestic	25 19	Napier Napier	5 years 10 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	73/1097		12 July 1873	The Registrar of Marriages in the Colony
427	21 July 1873	William Shields Caroline Yelle	William Shields Caroline Telle 💍 1873/8071	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Domestic	30 26	Napier Napier	18 months 10 months	Episcopalian Church, Napier	73/1104		21 July 1873	Rev. S. Williams
428	22 July 1873	David Scannell Ruth Northeroft	David Scannell Ruth Northcroft 💍 1873/8074	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector A.C.	35 28	Napier Napier	4 days 4 days	Episcopalian Church, Napier	73/1105		22 July 1873	Rev. S. Williams
432	13 August 1873	Andrew Grant Eliza Smallwood	Andrew Grant Eliza Smallwood 💍 1873/8953	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	37 31	Napier Napier	7 years 7 years	Residence of Mrs Smallwood, Napier	73/1108		13 August 1873	Rev. D. Silby
433	13 August 1873	Louis Dunn Andrea Johnson	Louis Dunn Andia Johnsen 💍 1873/8053	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	27 22	Mohaka Napier	10 years 11 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	73/1098		13 August 1873	The Registrar of Marriages
434	20 August 1873	William Moloney Elizabeth Higgins	William Moloney Elizabeth Higgins 💍 1873/8038	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	32 21	Napier Napier	3 days 6 months	Roman Catholic Church, Napier	73/1093		20 August 1873	Rev. Father Forest

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 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).