Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 451

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1879

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
1	2 January 1879	Michael O'Connell Honora Fitzgerald	Michael O'Connell Honora Fitzgerald 💍 1879/416	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	27 21	Napier Napier	14 days 1 week	St Joseph's Chapel, Napier	79/1310		2 January 1879	Rev J. Forest
2	20 January 1879	James Boyle Elizabeth Ann Annabell	James Boyle Elizabeth Ann Annabell 💍 1879/424	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	45 24	Havelock Hastings	10 years 3 months	House of Mr Reynolds	79/1350		20 January 1879	Rev A Shepherd
3	21 January 1879	Joseph John Deiden Bridget Mary Tatty	Joseph John Sinden Bridget Mary Talty 💍 1879/415	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 28	Napier Napier	2 years 3 years	St Joseph's Chapel, Napier	79/1309		21 January 1879	Rev F Forest
4	24 January 1879	Duncan William Alexander Ellen Styles	Duncan William Alexander Ellen Styles 💍 1879/414	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 25	Napier Napier	3 weeks 1 week	House of Mr Alexander	79/1308		24 January 1879	Rev D Sidey
5	8 February 1879	Henry James Fuller Emma Stambling	Henry James Fuller Emma Hambling 💍 1879/425	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	20 17	Napier Napier	7 years 4 years	The House of Thomas Patterson Fuller	79/1307	Charles Hambling, Father	8 February 1879	Rev H Wilkinson
6	12 February 1879	Joseph Alexander Martin Alice Eleanor Ellis	Joseph Alexander Martin De Voscas Alice Eleanor Ellis 💍 1879/427	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	34 31	Napier Napier	18 months 2 years	Church of England	79/1303		12 February 1879	Rev De Berdt Hovell
7	28 February 1879	Denis Ryan Alice Curry	Denis Ryan Alice Curry 💍 1879/429	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	44 35	Napier Napier	3 days 3 days	Mission Meanie	79/1305		28 February 1879	J Regnier
8	3 March 1879	William Willis Rebecca Williams	William Willis Rebecca Williams 💍 1879/430	Bachelor Spinster	Fitter	23 20	Napier Napier	2 years 2 years	House of Mr Grinlinton	79/1356	No Parent or Guardians in the Colony	3 March 1879	Rev W C Oliver
9	6 March 1879	William Ruddick Sarah Ann Curry	William Ruddick Sarah Ann Curry 💍 1879/413	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	31 20	Clive Napier	8 months 3 years	Presbyterian Church	79/1299	No Parent or Guardians in the Colony	6 March 1879	Rev D Sidey

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).