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 394

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar [illegible]

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
818	30 May 1877	Arthur Ferriet Haultain Louisa Josephine Torr	Arthur Terrick Haultain Louisa Josephine Torr 💍 1877/1283	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	41 25	Tangois Petane	2 years	Residence of [illegible] Torr	77/1232		30 May 1877	Rev. J. Johnstone
819	30 May 1877	John Norman Elizabeth Querel	John Norman Elizabeth Queree 💍 1877/986	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	20 19	Napier Puketapu	2½ years 2 years	House of P Dolbel Esq	77/1905	G. Lawson Brother	1 June 1877	Rev. P. C. Anderson
820	31 May 1877	Alexander Allanach Ann Jane Stenlin	Alexander Allanuck Ann Jane Hanlon 💍 1877/985	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	33 23	Taradale Napier	12 years 3 years	House of Istwell	77/1904	Philip Doebel Uncle	31 May 1877	Rev. D. Sidey
821	9 June 1877	Ole Nilsens Matilde Amelia Hapsey		Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 22	Napier Napier	3 years 15 months	House of Wheel Dickens St	77/1902		9 June 1877	Rev. Edward Nelson
822	15 June 1877	Peter McLean Eliza Collins	Peter McLean Eliza Collins 💍 1877/990	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Pukahu Pukahu	4 years 6 years	Presbyterian Church Havelock	77/1909		15 June 1877	Rev. A. Shepherd
823	18 June 1877	James Connor Mary Christison	James Connor Mary Christison 💍 1877/1284	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 22	Napier Napier	16 years 2½ years	St Johns Church Napier	77/1233		18 June 1877	Rev. I. Townsend
824	18 June 1877	Charles Harrison Annie M. Laughlan	Charles Harrison Annie McLaughlan 💍 1877/1003	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 17	Hastings Napier	4 months 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Mission	77/1899	William Carey Step Father	18 June 1877	Rev. Father Regnier

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).