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 386

District of Napier Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
537	31 October 1874	Murdoch McDougall Margaret Cameron	Murdoch McDonald Margaret Cameron 💍 1874/11986	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	38 19	Napier Napier	10 Months 2 years	Residence of Mr. McDougall Napier	2090	Angus Cameron, Father	31 October 1874	Rev. D. Ruddy
538	3 November 1874	Alexander Gunn Ellen Eliza Fellingham	Alexander Jones Ellen Elizabeth Fellingham 💍 1874/12022	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Nil	29 19	Napier Napier	12 Months 3 Months	Residence of Mrs. Fellingham Petane	2103	Elizth Fellingham Mother	3 November 1874	Rev. J. Anderson
539	4 November 1874	Cornelius Carroll Catherine Hinn	Cornelius Carroll Catherine Heeney 💍 1874/5842	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	32 23	Napier Napier	2 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church Napier	74/2101		4 November 1874	Rev. Father Gouteneau
540	7 November 1874	William Law Ellen Agnes Hall	William Lawes Ellen Agnes Hall 💍 1874/12016	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	25 21	Napier Napier	2 years 8 Months	Registrars Office Napier	2100		7 November 1874	Registrar of Marriages
541	17 November 1874	James Pilcher Elizabeth Harrison	James Pilcher Elizabeth Harrison 💍 1874/13567	Bachelor Spinster	Shearer Domestic	26 22	Clive Havelock	15 years 3 Weeks	Methodist Church Napier	2633		17 November 1874	Rev. C.H. Redstone Minister
542	18 November 1874	John Alexander McKenzie Eleanor Young Green	John Alexander McKenzie Eleanor Towndrow Greer 💍 1874/11977	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman Nil	23 22	Napier Napier	18 Months 8 years	residence of Mr. Green Napier	2082		18 November 1874	Rev. D. Sidey
543	23 November 1874	Henry Hoyle Wall Sophia Thompson Waldrom	Henry Hoyle Wall Sophia Thompson Waldrom 💍 1874/11974	Bachelor Spinster	Watch Maker Domestic	25 24	Napier Napier	12 Months 8 years	English Church Napier	2086		23 November 1874	Rev. J. Townsend
544	5 November 1874	William Hood Margareth Rachael Berry	William Hood Margaret Rachel Berry 💍 1874/11983	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Dressmaker	32 18	Napier Napier	18 Months 12 years	residence of Mr. S. Berry Napier	2089		5 November 1874	Rev. D. Sidey

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).