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 508

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
76	16 November 1882	William Edwards Hannah Howell Spinder	William Edwards Hannah Howell 💍 1882/2991	Bachelor Spinster	Trainer	28 26	Clive Clive	3 days 20 years	Residence of Rev. D Sidey	82/2920		16 November 1882	Rev. D Sidey, Presbyterian
77	22 November 1882	Ernest James Mountain Lucie Pirani Spinder	Ernest James Mountier Lucie Pirani 💍 1882/2998	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 17	Napier Napier	2 years 5 years	House of Mrs Pirani	82/2921	A. C. Pirani, Father	22 November 1882	Rev. D Sidey, Presbyterian
78	30 November 1882	Alfred Henry Rice Emma Mason Spinder	Alfred Henry Price Emma Mason 💍 1882/2981	Widower Spinster	Ship Farmer	46 23	Napier Napier	3 days 3 weeks	at St Johns Church	82/2928		30 November 1882	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
79	1 December 1882	William Harris Mary Allan	Francis Hicks Mary Allan 💍 1883/201	Bachelor Widow	Brickmaker	31 38	Napier Napier	9 months 7 months	House of John Longard	82/2912		1 December 1882	Rev. O Perry, Free Methodist
80	14 December 1882	Thomas Tattershell Annie Painter Spinder	James Thomas Tattershall Annie Painter 💍 1882/2999	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	24 19	Taradale Meanu	1 week 57 years	Presbyterian Manse	82/2922	Henry Painter, Father	14 December 1882	Rev. D Sidey, Presbyterian
81	15 December 1882	William Hartley Schipper Florie Catherine Evensen Spinder	William Hartvig Schipper Marie Cathinca Ambrocia Evensen 💍 1882/3082	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	20 20	Napier Napier	1 year 8 years	House of Mr Evensen, Shadum	82/2905	Gudbrand Evensen, Father	15 December 1882	Rev. I. I. Lewis, Wesleyan
82	18 December 1882	Louis Dorensen Dean Karen Matilda Nelson Spinder	Louis Sorensen Dean Karen Matilda Nielsen 💍 1882/3083	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 21	Port Ahuriri Napier	3 years 3 weeks	House of Peter Hansen	82/2906		18 December 1882	Rev. I. I. Lewis, Wesleyan
83	22 December 1882	[illegible] Harris Elizabeth Harris	William Harris Elizabeth Webb 💍 1882/2932 John Harris Elizabeth Haynes 💍 1882/3066	Widow Widow		48 48	Clive Clive	7 years 7 years	Clive Church	82/3192		22 December 1882	Rev. S. M. Lean, English
84	26 December 1882	James Walters Edward Robertson Knight	James Walters Elizabeth Harris 💍 1882/3385	Widower Bachelor	Labourer Clerkin Holy Orders	50 25	Awatoto Napier	5 years 3 days	English Church			26 December 1882	Rev. H. N. Shiel, English
85		Augusta Knight		Spinster		28	Clive	12 years	Hastings

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).