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 357

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1875 Registrar I. M. Wason

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
606	31 May 1875	Joseph Burton Sarah Hawken	Joseph Burton Sarah Hawkins 💍 1875/1507	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor Domestic	26 22	Napier Napier	1 year residence of Mr. Hawken 10 years	Residence of Mr. Hawken, Napier	75/1550		31 May 1875	Revd. I. D. Smalley
607	3 June 1875	Robert Rowley Selina Batley		Bachelor Spinster	Cook Cook	26 21	Napier Napier	6 years 3 Weeks	English Church, Napier	75/1551		3 June 1875	Revd. I. D. Smalley
608	5 June 1875	Edward Hogan Mary Jettens	Edward Hogan Mary Gittins 💍 1875/1501	Widower Widow	Brickmaker Nil	44 45	Napier Napier	10 1/4 years residence of Mr. Sidey 3 years	Residence of Mr. Sidey, Napier	75/1557		5 June 1875	Revd. I. D. Sidey
609	11 June 1875	William Henry Street Nitripooloans Henrici		Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger Nil	23 16	Napier Napier	17 years Since birth	English Church, Napier	75/1584	A. F. Henrici, Father	11 June 1875	The Bishop of Waiapu
610	12 June 1875	Wm. Petra Finneran Margaret Ebbett	William John Firmerson Margaret Ebbett 💍 1875/1508	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	36 25	Napier Napier	9 years residence of Mr. Kinson 4 1/2 years	Residence of Mr. Kinson, Napier	75/1558		12 June 1875	Revd. I. D. Sidey
611	12 June 1875	Carl Johannes Thoresen Thorine Thoresen	Carl Johannesen Thorine Thoresen 💍 1875/913	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	32 30	Napier Napier	2 years residence of Mr. Allan 2 years	Residence of Mr. Allan, Napier	75/888		12 June 1875	Revd. Edward Nilson
612	14 June 1875	Rasmus Pedison Marie Louisa Kock	Rasmus Pedersen Marie Louiza Kock 💍 1875/1746	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	25 19	Havelock Havelock	1 year residence of Mr. Smalley 1 year	Residence of Mr. Smalley, Havelock	75/1581	Has no relation in the Colony	14 June 1875	Revd. I. D. Smalley
613	14 June 1875	Thomas Bishop Elizabeth Kelly	Thomas Bishop Elizabeth Kelly 💍 1875/1122	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Nil	34 22	Havelock Havelock	1 Week residence of Mr. Reilly 4 years	Residence of Mr. Reilly, Havelock	75/1140		14 June 1875	Revd. S. Williams
614	23 June 1875	Hans Peder Pederson Maria Christine Hansen	Hans Peder Pedersen Maren Christine Hansen 💍 1875/1757	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic	25 23	Napier Napier	4 days residence of Mr. Smalley 15 Months	Residence of Mr. Smalley, Napier	75/1582		23 June 1875	J. S. Smalley

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).