Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 347

District of Hawera Quarter ending 31 March 1882

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
28	09 January 1882	John Hickey Annie Connolly	John Hickey Annie Connolly 💍 1882/368	Bachelor Spinster	Constabulary -	26 21	Hawera Hawera	4 days 7 days	Catholic Church	82/126		09 January	Revd. M. Grogan
29	17 January 1882	James Hepburn Margaret Casey	James Hepburn Margaret Casey 💍 1882/365	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter -	53 38	Hawera Hawera	2 years 2 years	Registrar's Office	82/1213		17 January	W. J. Chaney
30	08 February 1882	Patrick Condon Barbara Naughton	Patrick Condon Barbara Naughton 💍 1882/3649	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	32 25	Manaia Hawera	2 years 9 months	Catholic Church			08 February	Revd. M. Grogan
31	08 February 1882	Richard Hicks Sandez Mary Theresa Creig	Richard Hicks Linsted Mary Theresa Craig 💍 1882/362	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher -	29 28	Manaia Manaia	16 months 8 months	Private dwelling	82/1210		08 February	Revd. Jas. Jony
32	14 February 1882	George Pickering Richards Harriet Lonian Smith		Widower Widow	Physician -	40 39	Hawera Hawera	2 years 8 years	Private residence			14 February	Revd. Jas. Jony
33	15 February 1882	Hugh Dixon Annie Jamison	Hugh Nixon Annie Jamison 💍 1882/364	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer -	26 18	Normanby Naihi	12 months 9 months	Private dwelling	82/1212	William Jamison, Father	16 February	Revd. J. Jony
34	16 February 1882	Michael Franklin Bedelia Ineldon	Michael Franklin Bedilia Meldon 💍 1882/369	Bachelor Spinster	Constable a.c. -	28 24	Manaia Manaia	18 months 6 months	Roman Catholic Church Hawera	82/1217		16 February	Revd. M. Grogan
35	18 February 1882	Reuben Benjamin George Blight Sarah Brown	Reuben Benjamin George Blight Sarah Brown 💍 1882/363	Bachelor Widow	Shipwright -	40 40	Opunake Opunake	9 months 2 months	Private dwelling	82/1211		18 February	Revd. J. Jony
36	21 February 1882	Peter Adamson Mary Ann McDonellin	Peter Adamson May Ann McLoughlin 💍 1882/366	Widower Spinster	Baker Housemaid	54 32	Hawera Hawera	12 months 10 weeks	Registrar's Office	82/1214		21 February	W. J. Chaney
37	15 March 1882	Armand Gerard Delamalle Agnes Parker	Armand Gerard Delamalle Agnes Parker 💍 1882/367	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper -	32 22	Oeo Hawera	3 days 9 months	Registrar's Office	82/1215		15 March	W. J. Chaney

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).