Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 449

District of Napier Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
61	2 October 1880	Donald Fraser Mary Hannah Wells	Donald Fraser Mary Hannah Wells 💍 1880/2880	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 19	Napier Napier	1 year 4 years	St Pauls Church Napier	80/12533	William Wells, Father	2 October 1880	Rev D Sidey, Presbyterian
62	11 October 1880	Walter Lambert Prime Mary Attey Martin	Walter Lambert Prime Mary Uttley Martin 💍 1880/2884	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	25 23	Napier Napier	3 years 17 years	Trinity Church Napier	80/12534		11 October 1880	Rev G. Oliver, Wesleyan
63	14 October 1880	Richard Buckingham Mary Bowman	Richard Buckingham Mary Bowman 💍 1880/2885	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	Napier Napier	4 months 4 years	House of Henry Stopp, Deekin St	80/12535	Henry Stopp, Step Father	14 October 1880	Rev. T. C. Oliver, Wesleyan
64	15 October 1880	Michael Hebden Hannah Sophia Nash	Michael Hebden Hannah Sophia Marsh 💍 1880/2886	Widower Widow	Carpenter	45 33	Napier Napier	14 years 11 Months	House of J.F. Smith, Napier	80/12539		15 October 1880	Rev T. C. Oliver, Wesleyan
65	29 October 1880	Henry Harvey Margaret Cargo	Henry Harrey Margaret Cargo 💍 1880/2883	Bachelor Spinster	Coach driver	30 26	Meanee Meanee	8 years 14 days	House of R.S. Graham, Napier	80/12536		29 October 1880	Rev C. A. Penny, United Methodist
66	26 November 1880	John Edgar Brown Caroline Balaclava Cook	John Vigor Brown Caroline Balaclava Cook 💍 1880/2862	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	27 25	Napier Napier	2 years	St Johns Church Napier	80/12531		26 November 1880	Rev De Berdt Hovell, English Church
67	26 November 1880	John Aude Bowerman Mary Ann ODonoghue	John Needes Bowerman Mary Ann ODonoghue 💍 1880/2926	Widower Spinster	Chemist	42 32	Napier Napier	7 years 5 years	St Marys Chapel Napier	80/12528		26 November 1880	Rev. J. Forest, Roman Catholic Priest
68	10 December 1880	James Oliver Lucy Karnich	James Oliver Lucy Karnick 💍 1880/2873	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	29 22	Napier Napier	8 years 2 years	St Johns Church Napier	80/12532		10 December 1880	Rev De Berdt Hovell, English Church
69	11 December 1880	John McKay Frances Harriett Short	John McKay Frances Harriett Stark 💍 1880/2927	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 22	Havelock Napier	17 years 5 weeks	St Johns Church Napier	80/12549		11 December 1880	Rev DeBerdt Hovell, English Church
70	16 December 1880	Joseph Leathern Darah Fletcher		Bachelor Widow	Baker	38 37	Napier Napier	4 years 3 years	English Church			16 December 1880	English Church
71	16 December 1880	George South Ellen Clara Fuller	George South Ellen Clara Fuller 💍 1880/2928	Bachelor Spinster	Commercial Traveller	26 18	Napier Napier	4 days 9 years	St Johns Church Napier	80/12530	Thomas Paterson Fuller	16 December 1880	Rev DeBerdt Hovell, English Church

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).