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 0461

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 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
31	5 April 1878	Paul Christian Villadsen Maria Nicotine Halverson	Paul Christian Villadsen Marie Nicoline Halvorsen 💍 1878/1122	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 32	Napier Napier	2 1/2 years 6 months	Residence of Paul Christian Villadsen, Onehunga	78/1120		5 April 1878	Edward Neilson
32	8 April 1878	William Bogle Matilda Wattie	William Bogle Matilda Wattie 💍 1878/1123	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 23	Napier Napier	5 years 8 years	St Johns Church	78/1121		8 April 1878	Rev. S. Williams
33	22 April 1878	Thomas Robert Samuel Hester Kate Monteith	Thomas Robert Samuel Hestin Kate Monk 💍 1878/1096	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist	24 21	Te Arai Napier	3 days 18 months	Residence of the Rev. D. Sidey	78/1115		22 April 1878	Rev. D. Sidey, Pres
34	27 April 1878	John Cooper Annie Charlette Shaw	John Couper Annie Charlotte Shun 💍 1878/3342	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer	24 24	Meeanee, Richardson Meeanee, Shakespeare Road	4 days 4 days	Residence, Meeanee, Richardson	78/1114		27 April 1878	Rev. D. Sidey, Pres
35	4 May 1878	Edwin Metherell Eva Drusilla Gwinn	Edwin Metherell Eva Druscilla Mann 💍 1878/1124	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	25 23	Clive Hastings	3 years 2 months	St Johns Church, Napier	78/1122		4 May 1878	Rev. J. Spear
36	4 May 1878	William Smith Alice Ann Thomas	William McDonald Alice Ann Thomas 💍 1878/1097	Bachelor Spinster	Bullock Driver	41 17	Taradale Taradale, Napier	9 months 4 months	Residence of R. D. Sidey	78/1117	No Parent or Guardian in the colony	4 May 1878	Rev. D. Sidey, Pres
37	11 May 1878	Donald McDonald May McDonald	Donald McDonald May McDonald 💍 1878/1128 Donald Lamont Jane McDonald 💍 1878/275 Dugald Livingstone Mary McDonald 💍 1878/3131	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	41 27	Pukahu Pukahu	10 years 6 months	Residence of Donald McDonald, Pukahu	78/1126		11 May 1878	Rev. S. Shepherd, Pres
38	15 May 1878	Sydenham Oxenham Emily Trimmer	Sydenham Oxenham Emily Trimmer 💍 1878/1125	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 22	Napier Napier	5 years 2 years	St Johns Church, Napier	78/1123		15 May 1878	Rev. J. Spear

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).