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 397

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar A. 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
843	21 August 1877	Obadiah Owen Sarah Springett	Obadiah Owen Sarah Springett 💍 1877/1700	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Cook	34 26	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	House of A. Palmer, Battery Road	77/1655		21 August 1877	Rev. D. Sidey
844	22 August 1877	James M. Vears Catherine Learbis	James McVicar Catherine Carbis 💍 1877/1694 James Miller Catherine Tarrant 💍 1877/1077 James McVeigh Catherine Sheenan 💍 1877/1104	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	29 25	Napier Napier	8 months 8 months	Free Methodist Church	77/1649		22 August 1877	Rev. I. Parkin
845	10 September 1877	Waldemar Schyning Juliane Marie Laversen	Waldemar Schyerning Juliane Marie Lauersen 💍 1877/1707	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Housemaid	22 19	Napier Napier	1 year 2 years	Trinity Church, Napier	77/1662	Jacob Laversen, Father	10 September 1877	Rev. S. Berry
846	15 September 1877	William Philip Guthidge Ella Frances Babington	William Phillip Guthriege Ellen Frances Babington 💍 1877/1695	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 22	Napier Napier	14 months 9 months	House of Guthidge	77/1650		15 September 1877	Rev. I. Parkin
847	19 September 1877	William Byrne Bridget M. Mahon	William Tyne Bridget McMahon 💍 1877/1706 William Hogan Bridget Craven 💍 1877/2080 William Oatridge Bridget Mulvihill 💍 1877/2554	Bachelor Spinster	Mail Contractor	32 23	Waipukurau West Clive	5 years 3 months	Mission Station	77/1661		19 September 1877	Rev. F. Regnier
848	25 September 1877	James Orr Julia Theresa Adela Torr	James Orr Julia Theresa Adela Torr 💍 1877/2065	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	31 19	Petane Petane	4 years 19	House of Mr. Torr	77/2006	Joseph Torr, Father	25 September 1877	Rev. H. Tombsone
849	25 September 1877	Joseph Pender Ellen Kennedy	Joseph Pindar Ellen Kennedy 💍 1877/2481	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman General Servant	25 26	Napier Napier	3 years 2 months	House of William Old	77/2483		25 September 1877	Rev. S. Parkin
850	26 September 1877	Peter Byrne Mary Macartney	Peter Byrne Mary Macartney 💍 1877/1701	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	25 22	Portahurine Portahurine	6 months 3 months	Rev. D. Sidey's House	77/1656		26 September 1877	Rev. 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 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).