Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 366

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1875

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
676	14 December 1875	Charles Stewart Alice Sarah Dean Ryde	Charles Stewart Alice Sarah Ann Ryder 💍 1875/2989 Charles Stewart Ellen Graham 💍 1875/3222	Bachelor Spinster	Policeman Milliner	20 18	Napier Napier	1 year 1 year	English Church, Napier	75/2897	Wm Ryde, Father	14 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
677	15 December 1875	Jabez Bennett Hollin Mary Ann Roberts	John Bennett Hollis Mary Ann Roberts 💍 1875/2333	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Nil	25 25	West Clive Puketapu	10 years 1 year	Residence of Mr Dolbel, Puketapu	75/2441		15 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
678	16 December 1875	William Outlaw Caroline Jahanser	William Oulton Caroline Johansen 💍 1875/3246	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	24 22	Napier Napier	8 years 3 years	Residence of Mr Qualley, Napier	75/2996		16 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
679	17 December 1875	Richard Hollin Catherine Lease	Richard Hollis Catherine Chase 💍 1875/2332	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Nil	25 18	Waerodde Omarahu	16 years 18 years	English Church	75/2440	James Lease, Father	17 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
680	20 December 1875	Archibald McCormack Margaret Curry	Archibald McOrmick Margaret Curry 💍 1875/2338	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver Domestic	19 17	Napier Napier	10 years 6 years	Residence of Mr Sidey, Napier	75/2445	Patrick McConnell, Margaret Curry, Mother	20 December 1875	Revd. D. Sidey, J.P.
681	22 December 1875	Carl Lodt Marie Schmidt		Bachelor Spinster	Fitter Domestic	40 30	Napier Napier	4 months 9 months	Presbyterian Church, Napier	75/2446		22 December 1875	Revd. D. Sidey, J.P.
682	24 December 1875	John McCryde Lydia Thick	John McBryde Lydia Thick 💍 1875/2966	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Nil	37 29	Napier Napier	3 years 1 year	English Church, Napier	75/2898		24 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
683	27 December 1875	Henry Augustus Maunder Fanny Hilling	Henry Augustus Maunder Fanny Hillary 💍 1876/89	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	28 23	Napier Napier	1 year 3 months	English Church, Napier	75/2999		27 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff
684	28 December 1875	Thomas Moody Mary Ann Yomlyn	Thomas Moody Mary Ann Tomlyn 💍 1876/90	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Cook	22 22	Hastings Hastings	2 months 2 months	English Church, Napier	75/100		28 December 1875	Revd. J. Townend, Coff

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).