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 495

District of Napier 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
1	12 January 1882	Thomas Lawton Ellen Lorigan	Thomas Lawton Ellen Lorigan 💍 1882/451	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	27 20	Taradale Taradale	7 years 20 years	Mission House	82/1390	Bridget Mary Loregan, mother	12 January 1882	Rev. F. Reignier
2	12 January 1882	John Sullivan Bridget Moloney	John Sullivan Bridget Moloney 💍 1882/443	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 21	Napier Napier	8 years 4 years	St Mary's Chapel	82/1388		12 January 1882	Rev. F. Reeces, Priest of Roman Catholic
3	20 January 1882	James Barry Mary Gilhooly	James Barry Mary Gilhooly 💍 1882/452	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	21 24	Hastings Napier	25 years 4 years	Mission House	82/1391		20 January 1882	Rev. F. Reignier
4	22 January 1882	Walter Edward Gudgeon Bertha Emily Luke	Walter Edward Gudgeon Bertha Emily Tuke 💍 1882/437	Widower Spinster	Captain A.C.	39 28	Napier Napier	5 days 20 years	of John Church Napier	82/1344		22 January 1882	Rev. D. De Berdt Hovell English Church
5	25 January 1882	Charles Moore Ellen Mary Woolston	Charles Moore Ellen Mary Woolston 💍 1882/442	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	31 19	Napier Napier	5 days 8 years	St John's Church	82/1382	Mary Susanna Woolston, mother	25 January 1882	Rev. D. De Berdt Hovell English Church
6	25 January 1882	Thomas Johnson Margaret Meade	Thomas Johnson Margaret Meade 💍 1882/495	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 18	Taradale Taradale	22 years 2 years	Mission House	82/1393	Mary Devine Meade, mother	25 January 1882	Rev. F. Reignier
7	28 January 1882	John Mason Alice Caroline Lambert	John Mason Alice Caroline Lambert 💍 1882/455	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Farmer	40 33	Napier Napier	6 days 29 years	Residence of S. Johnston	82/1542		28 January 1882	Rev. J. Williams
8	2 February 1882	John Albert Mapiss Anne Guppy	John Albert Napier Anne Guppy 💍 1882/458	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	24 24	Taradale Taradale	19 months 18 years	House of Mrs Guppy	82/1345		2 February 1882	Rev. D. De Berdt Hovell
9	2 February 1882	Richard Stuart Ada Portin	Richard Stuart Ada Parkin 💍 1882/438	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 41	Tarawera Napier	5 weeks 7 years	English Church	82/1398		2 February 1882	Rev. D. De Berdt Hovell
10	3 February 1882	James Montague Lorigan Amy Lewis	James Montauge Lorigan Amy Lewis 💍 1882/484	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	22 42	Taradale Taradall	4 days 6 weeks	Mission House	82/1392		3 February 1882	Rev. F. Reignier
11	6 February 1882	William Frederick Knight Clara Mosby Brown	William Frederick Knight Clara Wardly Brown 💍 1882/457	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Farmer	34 23	Napier Napier	4 days 1 year	Residence of Mrs Brown	82/1394		6 February 1882	Rev. D. Dedey

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).