Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 375

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
460	31 December 1873	Otto Julius Vogelguest Josephine Augusta Wingust	Otto Julius Fogelquist Josephine Augusta Niuquist 💍 1874/6511	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	28 23	Napier Napier	18 months 15 months	Residence of Mrs Vogelguest, Napier	74/212		1 January 1874	Rev. D. Sidey
461	5 January 1874	Enoch Kirk Rachael Hyde	Enoch Kirke Rachel Hyde 💍 1874/6508	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Domestic	28 26	Napier Napier	3 years 10 months	Wesleyan Church, Napier	74/211		5 January 1874	Rev. H.B. Redstone
462	12 January 1874	John Rodgers Caroline Howell	John Rodgers Caroline Howell 💍 1874/6514	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	25 17	Napier Napier	7 years 12 years	Residence of Mr Howell, Napier	74/213	Edward Howell, father, Napier	12 January 1874	Rev. D. Sidey
463	2 February 1874	James McAnerny Mary Ann Clareburt	James McAneny Mary Ann Clareburt 💍 1874/6475	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	24 16	Napier Napier	3 years 8 years	Episcopalian Church, Napier	74/201	John Clareburt, father, Napier	2 February 1874	The Bishop of Waiapu
464	5 February 1874	Daniel Blaney Fallisbruck Eliza Patterson	Daniel Blaney Tattershall Eliza Paterson 💍 1874/6472	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Nil	26 30	Napier Napier	2 years 3 days	Episcopalian Church, Napier	74/200		5 February 1874	The Bishop of Waiapu
465	12 February 1874	John George McCartney Sarah Ann Shirley	John George McCartney Sarah Ann Shirley 💍 1874/6499	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker Domestic	21 22	Napier Napier	1 year 12 years	Registrar's Office, Napier	74/208		12 February 1874	The Registrar of Marriages
466	16 February 1874	John Peers Margaret McLeamon	John Peers Margaret McLennan 💍 1874/6517	Bachelor Spinster	Bullock driver Domestic	23 20	Napier Napier	4 days 3 weeks	Residence of Mr Campbell, Napier	74/214	Neil Campbell, guardian, Napier	16 February 1874	Rev. John Campbell
467	24 February 1874	John Hall Elizabeth Ann Within	John Hall Elizabeth Ann Withers 💍 1874/6478	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Nil	22 18	Napier Napier	2½ years 10½ years	Episcopalian Church, Napier	74/202	Edward Within, father, Napier	24 February 1874	Rev. S. Williams
468	28 February 1874	William Sturrock Elizabeth Lean	William Sturrock Elizabeth Cox 💍 1874/6520	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic	24 18	Havelock Napier	3 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church, Napier	74/215	George Lean, father, Mawhera Quay	28 February 1874	Rev. John Campbell

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).