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 503

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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
47	05 July 1882	Robert Benjamin Curtis Annette Rebecca Lamb		Widower Widow	Surveyor	37 [illegible]	Napier Napier	4 years 1 year	Victoria Hotel	82/2061		05 July 1882	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
48	10 July 1882	Alfred Henry Young Agnes Eleanor Frost	Alfred Henry Young Agnes Eleanor Trask 💍 1882/2453	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 41	Napier Napier	8 years 20 years	St. John's Church	82/2078		10 July 1882	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
49	10 July 1882	Robert Johnstone Anastasia Gleeson	Robert Johnstone Anastasia Gleeson 💍 1882/2320	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	29 27	Napier Napier	3 days 9 years	Residence of Mr. South	82/2063		10 July 1882	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
50	17 July 1882	Jacob Smith Anne Hands	Jacob Smith Annie Hands 💍 1882/2310	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	27 21	Napier Napier	5 years 8 years	Wesleyan Church	82/2071		17 July 1882	Rev. I. S. Lewis, Wesleyan
51	22 July 1882	Robert Paton Hannah Louisa Roden	Robert Paton Hannah Louise Chambers 💍 1882/2327	Bachelor Widow	Carter	24 33	Napier Napier	12 years 9 years	House of Rev. D. Sidey	82/2064		22 July 1882	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
52	04 August 1882	William Clements Elizabeth Burns	William Clements Elizabeth Burns 💍 1882/2328	Bachelor Spinster	Coachman	22 24	Napier Napier	20 years 9 years	House of Mr. Jackson	82/2065		04 August 1882	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
53	07 August 1882	William Burke Hannah McLennan	William Sutherland Maryann McLennan 💍 1883/828 William Smith Elspit McLennan 💍 1882/916	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 22	Meanee Clive	6 years 1 year	Roman Catholic Church	82/2059		07 August 1882	Rev. F. Regnier, Roman Catholic
54	09 August 1882	John Skews Isabella Dinne	John Skews Isabella Timms 💍 1882/2330	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 18	Taradale Napier	3 years 10 years	Taradale Church	82/2064	Robert Granger, Father	09 August 1882	[illegible] English Church
55	11 August 1882	George Horan Bridget Wells	George Morau Bridget Wells 💍 1882/2454	Bachelor Spinster	Billsticker	29 21	Hastings Napier	2 months 1 days	St. John's Church	82/2059		11 August 1882	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church

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).