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 450

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
72	20 December 1880	George Goodall Mary Thundgomory Finlayson	George Goodall Mary Montgomery Finlayson 💍 1880/2881	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 19	Tongoio Mocangangi	18 months 17 years	House of William Finlayson, Mocangangi	80/12534	William Louis Finlayson, brother	20 December 1880	Rev. J.S. Nichol
73	28 December 1880	George Pattesary Stalland Emily Anne Consitt	George Potticary Holland Emily Annie Cousitt 💍 1881/375	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 19	Napier Napier	6 years 4 years	House of J.H. Consitt, Napier	81/251	John Mervin Consitt, father	28 December 1880	Rev. Sidey
74	28 December 1880	Edward Winters Agnes Shifflen		Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	23 22	Napier Napier	4 days 4 days	Mission Station, Meanu	80/12535		28 December 1880	Rev. J. Regnier
75	29 December 1880	Charles Goddard Annie Elizabeth Storkey	Charles Goddart Annie Elizabeth Storkey 💍 1881/354	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 18	Napier Napier	5 months 6 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Napier	81/290	William Storkey, father	29 December 1880	Rev. W.C. Oliver
76	30 December 1880	Thomas Goodgame Elizabeth Thompson	Thomas Goodgame Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1881/355 Thomas Jeal Mary Ann Elizabeth Thompson 💍 1880/236	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 19	Meanu Taradale	14 months 6 months	House of Neil Thompson, Taradale	81/291	Neil Thompson, father	30 December 1880	Rev. W.C. Oliver
77	31 December 1880	Frances Henry Brethain Mary Hawkins	Francis Henry Brittain Mary Hawkins 💍 1881/343	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	25 23	Taradale Taradale	1 week 23 years	Mission Station, Meanu	81/294		31 December 1880	Rev. J. Regnier
78	31 December 1880	George Edward Elson Annie Victoria Cook	George Edward Elson Annie Victoria Cook 💍 1881/370	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	25 20	Napier Napier	3 years 3 years	St. John's Church, Napier	81/282	Sarah Ann Cook, mother	31 December 1880	Rev. De Berdt Hovell
79	31 December 1880	George Goodall [UNCLEAR]		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 17	Tongoio Mocangangi	18 months 17 years	House of [UNCLEAR], Napier	[UNCLEAR]	William [UNCLEAR], father	31 December 1880	Rev. Sidey
80	31 December 1880	Andrew Breen Mary Collins	Andrew Breen Mary Collins 💍 1881/2733 Michael Sheehan Mary Collins 💍 1880/240	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 21	Hastings Taradale	6 years 6 months	Mission Station, Meanu	81/278		31 December 1880	Rev. Regnier
81	31 December 1880	John Burton Johanna Marie Hieldobson	John Burton Johanna Marrie Nicholson 💍 1881/373	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	20 20	Napier Napier	18 years 18 years	House of William Burton, Napier	81/285	Anderson Nicholson and William Burton, fathers	31 December 1880	Rev. C. Penny

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).