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 459

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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
59	1 October 1879	William Alfred Wilson Isabella Brown	William Alfred Rivers Williams Isabella Brown 💍 1879/3068	Widower Spinster	Mariner	32 22	Napier Napier	7 days 4 years	St John's Church	79/2623		1 October 1879	Rev. De Birst Hovell
60	27 October 1879	George Pables Millie Hare	George Peebles Helen Hare 💍 1879/3078	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	20 19	Clive Taradale, Clive	12 years	House of Mrs Hare	79/2623	Mrs Hare, mother	27 October 1879	Rev. A. Shepherd
61	30 October 1879	William Cooper Elizabeth Wrightson	William Henry Cooper Elizabeth Wrightson 💍 1879/3063	Bachelor Spinster		21 19	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	Wesleyan Parsonage	79/2621	Geo. Wrightson, father	30 October 1879	Rev. W. C. Oliver
62	7 November 1879	John Williams Reardon Ruth Walsh	John William Rearden Ruth Welsh 💍 1879/3061	Bachelor Widow	Warder	32 33	Napier Napier	6 years 2 years	St Mary's Chapel, Napier	79/2619		7 November 1879	Rev. H. Grogan
63	10 November 1879	Hugh McDonald Catherine McNeil	Hugh McDonald Catherine McNeil 💍 1879/3058	Bachelor Spinster	Stud Groom	27 20	Maraekakaho Napier	1 year 3 days	House of Rev. D. Sidey	79/2616		10 November 1879	Rev. D. Sidey
64	14 November 1879	William Mackray Ellen Smith	William MacKersey Ellen Smith 💍 1879/3059 William James Gurry Helen Smith 💍 1879/1159	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 19	Napier Napier	3 days 5 days	House of Rev. D. Sidey	79/2617	James Smith, father	14 November 1879	Rev. D. Sidey
65	27 November 1879	Timothy Ring Mary Curran	Timothy Ring Mary Curran 💍 1879/3077	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 25	Napier Napier	3 days 3 days	St Mary's Chapel, Napier	79/2611		27 November 1879	Rev. J. Reignier
66	28 November 1879	Thomas Brightwell Anne Bennett	Thomas Brightwell Annie Bennett Pearce 💍 1879/3064	Widower Spinster	Contractor	27 21	Napier Napier	6 weeks 10 months	House of Mr Consitt	79/2622		28 November 1879	Rev. W. C. Oliver
67	29 November 1879	Arthur Charles Webber Mary Richards Mills	Arthur Charles Webber Mary Richards Williams 💍 1879/3069	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	20 18	Napier Napier	14 years 6 years	St John's Church	79/2624	Elizabeth Mary Webber, mother; John Williams, father	29 November 1879	Rev. De Birst 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).