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 364

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
658	23 October 1875	Henry Joseph Rogers Catharine Pritchett	Henry Joseph Rogers Catherine Pritchard 💍 1875/2758	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver Dressmaker	22 26	Napier Napier	18 months 9 Months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	75/2372		23 October 1875	Registrar of Marriages
659	23 October 1875	James Buist Berry Johansen		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	31 18	West Clive Napier	5 years 2 years	Residence of Mr Blow, Napier	75/2640	Randi Jonsen, Mother	23 October 1875	Revd Edw. Neilson
660	25 October 1875	James Moore als Blair Esther Cecelia O'Douglass	James Moore St Clair Esther Cecelia O'Donoghue 💍 1875/2334	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Music Teacher	25 22	Napier Napier	14 Months 15 Months	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	75/2442	E. Regnier	25 October 1875	Revd. E. Regnier
661	28 October 1875	Richard Wm Craig Elizabeth Pennal	Richard William Craig Elizabeth Permal 💍 1875/2335	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Milliner	31 27	Napier Napier	20 years 3 years	Residence of Mr Craig, Napier	75/2443		28 October 1875	Revd S. Dibley
662	29 October 1875	Court Schmidt Octavia Digby	Carl Schmidt Octavia Digby 💍 1875/2983	Bachelor Widow	Clerk Music Teacher	31 29	Napier Napier	5 days 1 Month	Wesleyan Church, Napier	75/2591		29 October 1875	Revd. J. Horsfall
663	10 November 1875	William Boyce Ellen Chaributt	William Boyd Ellen Clareburt 💍 1875/2426 William Blackmore Ellen Lambert 💍 1876/112 William Fry Ellen Hagarty 💍 1876/468 William Holland Ellen Enwright 💍 1875/2959	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker Nil	22 16	Napier Napier	19 years 10 years	Roman Catholic Chapel, Napier	75/2572	John Chaributt, Father	10 November 1875	Revd. Father Forest
664	15 November 1875	Christen Nielsen Jensine Petursen	Christen Nielsen Jensine Petersen 💍 1875/2740	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	23 21	Napier Napier	16 Months 4 Months	Residence of Mr Russell	75/2995		15 November 1875	Revd. I. D. O'Malley
665	16 November 1875	Wilhelm Herebeck Louisa Koentopp	Wilhelm Hesebeck Louisa Kintopp 💍 1875/3012	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Nil	30 14	Napier Napier	20 months 2 Months	Methodist Church, Napier	75/2723	Conrad Koentopp, Father	16 November 1875	Revd. B. B. Reston, Minister
666	18 November 1875	Henry Kirtley Hodge Letetia Mary White	Henry Kirke Hodge Letitia Mary White 💍 1875/2984	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer Nil	35 38	Napier Napier	9 Months 3 Weeks	English Church, Napier	75/2892		18 November 1875	Revd. I. Gorrie, Both

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).