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 400

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 1877

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
861	6 December 1877	George Prior Donnelly Acrini Karauria	George Prior Donnelly Airini Karauria 💍 1877/18	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	29 21	Omahu Omahu	5 years 21 years	English Church	77/3011		6 December 1877	Rev. S. Hill
862	7 December 1877	John Abram Agnes James	John Abram Agnes James 💍 1877/19	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	27 26	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	16 months 14 months	St Johns Church	77/3012		7 December 1877	Rev. S. Hill
863	8 December 1877	Everard Harding Maxwell Hawthorn Florence Beatrice Nightingale	Everard Sterling Maxwell Hawthorne Florence Rebecca Nightingale 💍 1877/2475	Bachelor Spinster	Boarding House	42 21	Napier Napier	3 days 3 days	Registrar's Office	77/2448		8 December 1877	Registrar
864	10 December 1877	Thomas Smith Margaret Isabella Sproulle	Thomas Smith Margaret Isabella Sproule 💍 1877/2491	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	26 27	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	1 year 4 years	House of Rev. S. Parton	77/2486		11 December 1877	S. Parton
865	15 December 1877	Anthony Robertson Mary Anderson	Anthony Robertson Mary Anderson 💍 1877/2509 Daniel McPherson Mary Anderson 💍 1877/2654	Widower Spinster	Porter	33 26	Port Ahuriri Havelock	18 months 12 months	House of Rev. S. Anderson	77/2488		16 December 1877	Rev. S. Shepherd
866	19 December 1877	Matthew Castercard Taylor Margaret Hamilton	Matthew Catherwood Taylor Margaret Hamilton 💍 1877/3009 Charles Butler Margaret Hamilton 💍 1877/2858	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	20 20	Meanu Meanu	14 days 5 days	St Johns Church	77/3013	Parent or Guardian in de Colony	19 December 1877	Rev. S. Hill
867	19 December 1877	William Dickenson Eliza Pell	William Dickinson Eliza Pell 💍 1877/2510	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 17	Clive Clive	3 years 6 months	Mr Coups Cottage Clive	77/2489	Parent or Guardian in de Colony	19 December 1877	Rev. W. Marshall
868	19 December 1877	Frederick Henry Stevens Mary Burton	Frederick Henry Stevens Mary Burton 💍 1877/2502	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	20 19	Napier Napier	4 years 13 years	Mr Burton's House	77/2487	Arthur Burton, Father	19 December 1877	Rev. S. Parton
869	22 December 1877	Robert Henderson Annet Lomeln	Robert Henderson Annie Lincoln 💍 1877/3001	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 27	Hastings Napier	5 years 26 years	St Johns Church	77/3014		22 December 1877	Rev. S. Hill

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).