Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 0459

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1878

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
19	6 February 1878	Henry Chudleigh Wilmer Ida Julia Richards formerly Goreing	Henry Chudleigh Willmer Ida Julia Richards 💍 1878/3169	Bachelor Widow	Deputy Registrar Supreme Court	35 34	Napier Napier	3 days 3 days	St Johns Church Napier	78/13223		6 February 1878	Rev H W St Hill
20	9 February 1878	William Wood Georgina Brown	William Wood Georgina Brown 💍 1878/3170	Widower Spinster	Painter	30 26	Napier Napier	3 years 2 years	St John's Church Napier	78/13224		9 February 1878	Rev H W St Hill
21	14 February 1878	John Lewis Isabella Joshua Paul	John Lewis Isabella Paul 💍 1878/394	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 24	Napier Napier	6 weeks 6 weeks	House of Rev D Sidey	78/1349		14 February 1878	Rev D Sidey, Pres
22	23 February 1878	Henry Start Sarah Jane Williams	Henry Start Sarah Jane Willis 💍 1878/395	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 21	Napier Napier	2 years 21 years	House of Rev D Sidey	78/1350		23 February 1878	Rev D Sidey, Pres
23	25 February 1878	Cradoe Davils Emma Greenerton		Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	25 19	Waipukurau Napier	1 month 4 years	St Johns Church Napier	78/13225	William Mascaus, Father	25 February 1878	Rev H W St Hill
24	4 March 1878	John Baker Eleanor Jenkin	John Baker Eleanor Jenkins 💍 1878/402 John Baker Norah Ryan 💍 1878/1257	Widower Spinster	Cook & Baker	55 44	Maraekakaho Maraekakaho	18 years 3 years	Residence of Archdeacon of Waimea	78/1351		4 March 1878	Rev S Shepherd
25	6 March 1878	James Harwood Emma Chapman	James Harwood Emma Chapman 💍 1878/3172	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	20 22	Napier Napier	6 weeks 6 weeks	St Johns Church Napier	78/13226	My Parents or Guardians in the Colony	6 March 1878	Rev H W St Hill
26	11 March 1878	William Henry Reed Ann Eliza Leaf	William Henry Reed Ann Eliza Leaf 💍 1878/3173	Widower Spinster	Photographer	35 25	Napier Napier	3 weeks 3 weeks	St Johns Church Napier	78/13227		11 March 1878	Rev H W St Hill
27	18 March 1878	Joseph Liddle Eleanor McGowan	Joseph Liddle Eleanor McGowan 💍 1878/399	Bachelor Spinster	Auctioneer	28 20	Napier Napier	5 years 22 years	Trinity Church Napier	78/1352	James Barry, Step Father	18 March 1878	Rev H W St 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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).