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 356

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 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
597	20 April 1875	Henry Gardiner Eliza Hawkins	Henry Gardner Eliza Hawker 💍 1875/811	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	24 21	Yaridale Yaridale	1 year 17 years	Residence of Mr. Hammon Yaridale	75/1882		20 April 1875	Revd. P. C. Anderson
598	22 April 1875	William Chas. Cole Emma Dawson Cole	William Charles Hunt Emma Dawson Cole 💍 1875/1166	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	23 19	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 14 months	Residence of Mrs. Parr Napier	75/1089	Katherine Parr Guardian	22 April 1875	Revd. J. B. Richardson
599	23 April 1875	Francis Mellieum Annie Murray	Francis Millican Annie Murphy 💍 1875/1406	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Nil	29 22	Meanee Napier	11 years 7 months	Residence of Mr. Murphy Napier	75/1557		20 April 1875	Revd. J. B. Richardson
600	23 April 1875	Frederick Hawkins Oleana Mary Martha Oleana Lawson		Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman Domestic	26 24	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 5 months	Residence of Mr. Hawkins Napier	75/1555		20 April 1875	Revd. D. Sidey
601	27 April 1875	Alexander Bissett Isabella Martin	Alexander Bissett Isobella Martin 💍 1875/1407	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Domestic	35 22	Napier Napier	7 years 9 months	Residence of Mr. Sidey Napier	75/1553		27 April 1875	Revd. D. Sidey
602	4 May 1875	Engelbert Olsen Eukene Gundison	Engebret Olsen Gurine Gundersen 💍 1875/1506	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Nil	38 40	Napier Clive	3 years 3 years	Residence of Mr. Smalley Napier	75/1549		4 May 1875	Revd. J. S. Smalley
603	8 May 1875	Peter Walsh Jane Downs	Peter Walsh Jane Dawns 💍 1875/914	Bachelor Spinster	Gymnist Nil	24 21	Napier Napier	5 weeks 1 week	Office of the Regr. of Marriages Napier	75/1889		8 May 1875	The Registrar of Marriages Napier
604	15 May 1875	Henry Robertshaw Jane South	Henry Robertshaw Jane Souter 💍 1875/1512	Bachelor Spinster	Stockkeeper Nil	21 22	Yaridale Meanee	2 1/2 years 2 years	England Church Napier	75/1562		15 May 1875	Revd. P. C. Anderson
605	20 May 1875	John Student Agnes Newill	John Stuart Agnes Newell 💍 1875/1490	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper Domestic	22 21	Napier Napier	5 months 9 months	Residence of Mr. Sidey Napier	75/1536		20 May 1875	Revd. D. Sidey

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).