Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 389

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar John Grubb

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
782	5 January 1877	William Waite Julia Rowbottom	William Waite Julia Robottom 💍 1877/364	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	43 29	Port Ahuriri Napier	18 years 16 years	House of [illegible] Revd Lidey	77/1269		5 January 1877	Rev D Lidey
783	15 January 1877	Michael Cosgriff Julia Cullinan	Michael Cosgriff Julia Cullinane 💍 1877/368	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	23 21	Napier Napier	2 months 2 months	Roman Catholic Chapel Napier	77/1272		15 January 1877	Rev I Forrest
784	29 January 1877	William Warrand Carlile Julia Jane Begg	William Warrand Carlile Julia Jane Begg 💍 1877/365	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	33 20	Napier Napier	10 years 17 years	House of D. Begg	77/1270	D. Begg Father.	29 January 1877	Rev D Lidey
785	29 January 1877	Samuel Carr Eliza Richardson Skillcock	Samuel Carr Eliza Richardson Shillcock 💍 1877/358	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	33 27	Napier Napier	7 days 3 months	St John's Church	77/1263		29 January 1877	Rev I Townsend
786	30 January 1877	William Charles Ford Annette Ingroddsen	William Charles Ford Annetta Ingvoldsen 💍 1877/360	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Servant	28 29	Napier Napier	7 days 7 days	St John's Church	77/1265		30 January 1877	Rev S Robinson Townsend
787	30 January 1877	Henry Renouf Ann Le Moignan	Henry Renouf Ann Le Moignan 💍 1877/376	Widower Widow	Carpenter	50 45	Napier Napier	18 years 2 years	House of Henry Renouf	77/1257		30 January 1877	Rev S Smalley
788	31 January 1877	Frederick William Thompson Bernhielde Emilie Ingroddan	Frederick William Thompson Brunhilde Imilie Ingvoldsen 💍 1877/359	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	43 21	Napier Napier	13 months 3 years	St John's Church	77/1264		31 January 1877	Rev S Robinson Townsend
789	8 February 1877	Edwin Mansfield Susannah Caselle	Edwin Mansfield Susannah Cusselle 💍 1877/371	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	23 18	Meanee Meanee	4 years 2 years	Havelock Church	77/1275	John Caselle Father.	8 February 1877	Rev W Marshall
790	13 February 1877	Rasmus Waldemar Jensen Maren Mortensen	Rasmus Waldemar Jensen Maren Mortensen 💍 1877/377	Bachelor Widow	Watchmaker	25 33	Napier Napier	18 months 18 months	Wesleyan Trinity Church	77/1258		13 February 1877	Rev 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).