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 390

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 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
791	19 February 1877	Francis George Borgutzky Mary Ann Smith	Francis George Borzutzky Mary Ann Smith 💍 1877/361 Caleb Cooper Mary Ann Smith 💍 1877/2377	Bachelor Spinster	Gunsmith	27 20	Napier Napier	20 months 5 months	St Johns Church	77/264	Frederick George Smith, Father	20 February 1877	Rev. I. Townsend
792	19 February 1877	Hugh Connor Mary Matilda Read	Hugh Connor Mary Matilda Read 💍 1877/362	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Housemaid	31 22	Napier Napier	3 years 13 years	St Johns Church Napier	77/278		19 February 1877	Rev. I. Townsend
793	20 February 1877	George Edgar Bluee Mary A. Connell	George Edgar Sluice Mary O'Connell 💍 1877/391	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	26 16	Hastings Clive	2 months 2 years	Clive Church	77/278	Patrick O'Connell, Father	20 February 1877	Rev. W. Marshall
794	20 February 1877	George Walter Cullen Jane Elizabeth Gardiner	George Walter Cullen Jane Elizabeth Gardiner 💍 1877/398	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	38 19	Napier Napier	11 years 2 years	Registrar's office Napier	77/280	Raepth Gardiner, Father	20 February 1877	Registrar
795	20 February 1877	John Beatson Mary Jane Starvey	John Beatson Mary Jane Harvey 💍 1877/375	Bachelor Spinster	Woolscourer	35 25	Meaner Napier	2 years 2 years	House of John Starry	77/256		20 February 1877	Rev. I. Parkin
796	22 February 1877	James Knowles Mary Gorman	James Knowles Mary O'Gorman 💍 1877/378	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	32 20	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	9 years 1 year	Residence of Rev. D. Smalley	77/259	No Parent or Guardian in the Colony	22 February 1877	Rev. D. Smalley
797	26 February 1877	Thomas Woods Bessie Ryan	Thomas Woods Bessie Ryan 💍 1877/397	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 20	Napier Napier	17 years 9 months	The Mission House Meanier	77/249		26 February 1877	Rev. Father Regnier
798	26 February 1877	George Nicholson Rosa Emeline Cooper	George Nicholson Rosa Emeline Cooper 💍 1877/379	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	22 22	Napier Napier	16 months 2 ½ years	Trinity Church Napier	77/260		26 February 1877	Rev. E.S. Smalley
799	27 February 1877	John Hodgson Aislabie Elizabeth Ann Keep	John Hodgson Aislabie Elizabeth Ann Keap 💍 1877/399	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 19	Napier Napier	8 days 2 months	Registrar's office	77/281	Edward Keep, Father	27 February 1877	Registrar

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).