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 376

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
469	9 March 1874	Frans Christian Fransen Johanna Fedireckka Padirsen	Frans Christian Franson Johanne Frederikke Pedersen 💍 1874/6487	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Domestic	21 17	Napier Napier		Episcopal Church Napier	74/205	These parties were married by the Captain of the ship Invererne on the passage from London to Napier on 25 Dec 1873 and entered in the ship's articles.... and have been married again in the Church at their own special request	9 March 1874	Rev J.S. Seymour
470	11 March 1874	Andrew Magnus Ivar Charlotte Anderson	Anders Magnus Ivar Charlotte Anderson 💍 1874/6484	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	26 25	Napier Napier	4 days 4 days	Episcopalian Church Napier	74/204		11 March 1874	Rev J.S. Seymour
471	11 March 1874	William Hutchinson Sarah Hassell	William Hutchison Sarah Hassell 💍 1874/6502	Bachelor Spinster	Ships Cook Cook	32 36	Napier Napier	4 days 4 days	Registration Office Napier	74/209		11 March 1874	Registrar of Marriages Napier
472	12 March 1874	Frederick West Elizabeth Ann Nicholas	Frederick West Elizabeth Jane Nicholas 💍 1874/6481	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic	25 25	Napier Napier	15 months 5 days	Episcopalian Church Napier	74/203		12 March 1874	Rev J.S. Seymour
473	18 March 1874	Joseph McGuire Paulina Hatton	Joseph McGuire Paulina Halter 💍 1874/6490	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 30	Napier Napier	2 years 8 Months	Episcopalian Church Napier	74/206		18 March 1874	Rev J.S. Seymour
474	20 March 1874	Frederick Yuekll Emily Howard	Frederick Tucker Emily Howse 💍 1874/7480	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 21	Meanee Meanee	17 Months 10 years	Residence of Mr. Howard Meanee	74/516		20 March 1874	Rev Wm. Colenso
475	25 March 1874	Thomas James North Jane Austin	Thomas James North Jane Austin 💍 1874/6505	Bachelor Widow	Saddlers Clerk	24 25	Napier Napier	4 years 8 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Napier	74/210		25 March 1874	Registrar of Marriages
476	30 March 1874	John Wm Silvister Rachael Bennett	John William Silvester Rachel Florendie Bennett 💍 1874/6493	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Domestic	31 28	Clive Napier	6 years 6 Months	Episcopalian Church Napier	74/207		30 March 1874	Rev J.S. Townsend

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).