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 472

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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
109	18 December 1878	Edward Robert Vickerman Emily Mary Tracey Irvine	Edward Robert Vickerman Emily D'arcy D'Arcy Irvine 💍 1878/3208	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	25 20	Napier Napier	10 days 6 years	St Johns Church Napier	78/3241	G. M. Day Irvine Father	18 December 1878	Rev De Berdt Hovell
110	20 December 1878	John Tucker Victoria Cheer	John Tucker Victoria Chur 💍 1878/2707	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	25 18	Clive Meeanee	6 months 12 years	House of J. Tucker Clive	78/2424	Frederick Parsons Step Father	20 December 1878	Rev. D. Shepherd
111	20 December 1878	David Dimon Charlotte Robert	David Simon Charlotte Roberts 💍 1878/2710	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	26 20	Napier Napier	13 years 12 months	House of C. Dolbell Puketapue	78/2429	No Parent or Guardians resident in the Colony	20 December 1878	Rev W. C. Oliver
112	23 December 1878	Joseph Burton Lydia Sarah McAlpine	Joseph Burton Lydia Sarah McAlpine 💍 1878/2711	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	30 20	Napier Napier	4 days 15 months	Residence of Mrs McAlpine Napier	78/2430		23 December 1878	Rev W. C. Oliver
113	23 December 1878	Thomas George Strange Frances Woodman Sharland	Thomas George Strange Frances Woodman Sharland 💍 1878/3209	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	25 24	Napier Napier	2 years 10 months	St John's Church Napier	78/3242		23 December 1878	Rev De Berdt Hovell
114	24 December 1878	Otto Peter Carstens Helene Auguste Strien	Otto Peter Carstens Helena Augusta Strien 💍 1878/2782	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 24	Napier Napier	6 months 6 months	House of Mrs Strien Napier	78/2807		24 December 1878	Rev W. C. Oliver
115	24 December 1878	John James Watson Annie Simmonds	John James Watson Annie Simmonds 💍 1878/3375	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	36 21	Napier Napier	10 years 5 years	St Johns Church Napier	78/3243		24 December 1878	Rev De Berdt Hovell

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).