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 507

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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
67	02 October 1882	Henry Painter Elya Brennan	Henry Painter Liza Brennan 💍 1882/3085	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	74 25	Meanu Meanu	5 years 3 years	Masion [illegible] Meanu	82/12908		02 October 1882	Rev. F. X. Chalogaier Roman Catholic
68	02 October 1882	William Adam Donaldson Fanny Elizabeth Chellam	William Adam Donaldson Fanny Elizabeth Shellam 💍 1882/3081	Bachelor Spinster	Harness maker	29 20	Napier Napier	3 years 7 year	or Shellams House Napier	82/12904	Alfred George Shellam Father.	20 October 1882	Rev. J. J. Lewis Wesleyan
69	10 October 1882	William Henry Mooney Georgina M'Keown	William Henry Mooney Georgina McKeown 💍 1882/3086	Widower Spinster	Storeman	41 29	Port Ahuriri Napier	17 years at Mary's Chapel 7 years	Chapel	82/12909		10 October 1882	Rev. J. Forest Roman Catholic
70	16 October 1882	Francis Septimus Mardon Elizabeth Goodgame	Francis Septimus Marchant Elizabeth Goodgane 💍 1882/3004	Bachelor Spinster	Bullock driver	27 18	Pohui Pohui	1 year 1 year at St Johns Church	Church	82/12924		30 October 1882	Rev. De Berdt Hovell English Church
71	17 October 1882	James Manja Macdord Marion Miller	James Menzies MacDonald Marion Miller 💍 1882/2980	Bachelor Spinster	Commission agent	28 25	Napier Napier	10 months 3 1/2 year	House of [illegible] Miller	82/12919		17 October 1882	Rev. Siday Presbyterian
72	20 October 1882	James Bartlett Jane Gilmore	James Bartlett Jane Gilmore 💍 1882/3096	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 18	Napier Napier	8 year 8 year Methodist Freechurch	Methodist Freechurch	82/12918	Isabella [illegible] Mother.	20 October 1882	Rev. C. O. Perry United Methodist
73	30 October 1882	Thomas Henry Morton Jane Goggins	Thomas Henry Morton June Goggin 💍 1882/3087	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 42	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	10 year at Mary's Chapel 2 years	Chapel	82/12910		30 October 1882	Rev. P. Forest Roman Catholic
74	08 November 1882	Alexander Kenneth McPherson Gunda Keren Thomas		Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 19	Napier Napier	3 days 10 years	Registrar's office Napier	82/12911	Edward Thomson Father		Edward [illegible] Registrar
75	15 November 1882	John Reid Jones Anne Sarah O'Carroll	John Reid Jones Ann Norah O'Connell 💍 1882/3003	Bachelor Spinster	Trainer	27 17	Clive Clive	2 years 4 years	St John's Church	82/12926	Robert [illegible] Father		Rev. De Berdt Stowe 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).