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 359

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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
617	5 July 1875	William James Jones Elizabeth Annie Hughes	William James Jones Elizabeth Anne Hughes 💍 1875/1600	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Nil	24 19	Puketapu Puketapu	4 years 15 years	Residence of Mr. Hughes	75/1925	William Hughes, Father	5 July 1875	Revd. R. P. Calderon
618	7 July 1875	Michael Alexander Esther Cohen	Michael Alexander Esther Cahm 💍 1875/1556	Bachelor Spinster	General dealer Nil	30 27	Napier Napier	3 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Napier	75/1629		7 July 1875	Registrar of Marriages
619	7 July 1875	William Ulick Burke Rachael Stuart	William Ulick Burke Rachel Stuart 💍 1875/1591	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Manager Nil	29 17	Napier Napier	1 year 5 years	English Church, Napier	75/1419	Robert Stuart, Father	7 July 1875	Revd. I. Townend
620	12 July 1875	John Luke Cleary Amy Ann Edser	John Cleary Mary Ann Edser 💍 1875/2198	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Dressmaker	25 21	Napier Napier	3 months 8 months	Residence of Mr. Edser	75/1911		12 July 1875	Revd. I. D. Smalley, J. G. Garr, Wes.
621	13 July 1875	George Lambert Elizabeth Ford	George Lambert Elizabeth Ford 💍 1875/2185	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	28 27	Clive Clive	10 years 1 year	Residence of Mr. Redstone	75/1981		13 July 1875	Revd. H. B. Redstone, United
622	15 July 1875	James Topping Sarah Parkin	James Topping Sarah Parkin 💍 1875/1592	Widower Widow	Storekeeper Nil	49 41	Napier Napier	18 years 2 Weeks	English Church, Napier	75/1418		15 July 1875	Revd. I. Townend
623	17 July 1875	Fredrik Beck Ellen Marie Christiansen	Frederick Beck Ellen Marie Christiansen 💍 1875/2199	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Domestic	22 28	Napier Napier	5 months 1 year	Residence of Mr. Smalley	75/1992		17 July 1875	Revd. I. D. Smalley, J. G. Gordon, Wes.
624	19 July 1875	John Hale Crease Priscilla Thomas	John Hall Crean Priscilla Thomas 💍 1875/2186	Bachelor Spinster	Tin Smith Nil	30 22	Napier Napier	15 Months 9 months	Residence of Mr. Barley	75/1982		19 July 1875	Revd. H. B. Redstone, United
625	19 July 1875	Robert Lovedale Hatch Harriet Ann Hicks	Robert Lordale Hatch Harriet Ann Hicks 💍 1875/2187	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Dressmaker	26 28	Clive Napier	13 years 1 1/2 years	Methodist Church, Napier	75/1983		19 July 1875	Revd. H. B. Redstone, United

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).