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 399

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1877 Registrar I. 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
852	02 October 1877	Alfred Beach Mary Jane Lagor	Alfred Beach Mary Jane Lagor 💍 1877/2511	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 20	Portahuriri Napier	10 months 2 years	Trinity Church	77/2490	William Lagor, father	12 October 1877	Rev. I. Berry
853	16 October 1877	Arthur Louis Stuart Henrietta Sarah Waters	Arthur Louis Stuart Henrietta Sarah Waters 💍 1877/2480	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	21 18	Portahuriri Portahuriri	21 years 4 weeks	Presbyterian Church, Napier	77/2482	Parent Dead	16 October 1877	Rev. S. Sidey
854	23 October 1877	Charles Thomas William Jemima Warren	Charles Thomas Williams Jemima Warren 💍 1877/2512	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor Milliner	25 25	Napier Napier	P. Church residence	[illegible]	77/2491		23 October 1877	Rev. I. Berry
855	29 October 1877	Michael Hyland Catherine Callaghan	Michael Hyland Catherine Callaghan 💍 1877/2513	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	26 26	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	77/2492		27 October 1877	Rev. I. Forest
856	07 November 1877	Thomas Crocker Elizabeth Roe	Thomas Crocker Elizabeth Roe 💍 1877/2482	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	45 54	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	United Methodist Free Church	77/2484		07 November 1877	Rev. I. Parkin
857	23 November 1877	John Murphy Jane Baker	John Murphy Janne Baker 💍 1877/2514	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	28 22	Hastings Hastings	2 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Chapel	77/2493		23 November 1877	Rev. I. Forest
858	27 November 1877	John Patterson Elizabeth Anna Wooding	John Scott Patterson Elizabeth Anna Wooding 💍 1877/2474	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	35 26	Taradale Taradale	12 months 12 months	Registrar's office, Napier	77/2444		27 November 1877	Registrar
859	29 November 1877	William Brothers Ann Collett	William Brothers Ann Colliet 💍 1877/2483	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 29	Napier Napier	1 year 1 year	House of or Chapel White	77/2485		29 November 1877	Rev. S. Parkin
860	30 November 1877	William Stuart Annie Rapley	William Stuart Annie Rapley 💍 1877/2479	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 20	Napier Napier	14 days 3 years	House of Rev. I. Berry	77/2481	No Parent or Guardians in the Colony	30 November 1877	Rev. I. Berry

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).