Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 471

District of Hastings Quarter ending 31 March 1883

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	8 January 1883	John Bush Nelly McNally	John Bush Nally McNally 💍 1883/597	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	23 22	Havelock Havelock	7 years 2 years	Residence of Rord E Regnier's, Hastings	83/323		10 January 1883	Rord Euloge Regnier C.P.
2	11 January 1883	James Doran Catherine O'Grady	James Doran Catherine O'Grady 💍 1883/2091	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	27 25	Hastings Havelock	6 months 5 months	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hastings	83/2032		11 January 1883	Rord Euloge Regnier C.P.
3	19 January 1883	John Chambers Catharine McLean Campbell	John Chambers Catherine McLean Campbell 💍 1883/599	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Domestic	29 23	Semata Havelock Poukawa	28 years 15 years	Residence of W. Campbell, Poukawa	83/325		19 January 1883	Rord William Nichol, Presbyterian Minister
4	19 January 1883	John McDonald Louisa Maria Chapman	John Macdonald Louisa Maria Chapman 💍 1883/434	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Domestic	35 18	Hastings Hastings	3 years 14 years	St. Luke's Church, Havelock	83/329	Henry Charles Chapman, Father	19 January 1883	Rord H. W. St. Hill, Church of England
5	27 January 1883	Charles Ocean Thompson Louisa Stanley	Charles Ocean Thompson Louisa Stanley 💍 1883/3328	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant Domestic	25 17	Napier Hastings	14 days 2 years	Office of Registrar, Napier	83/563	Theodore Jackson Stanley, Father	30 January 1883	W. Aitken Wright, Registrar
6	29 January 1883	Harry Langley Donnelly Mary Taylor Couper	Henry Langley Donnelly Mary Taylor Couper 💍 1883/367	Bachelor Spinster	Sheepfarmer Domestic	32 24	Papakura Havelock	3 years 18 years	Residence of W. Couper, Havelock	83/326		29 January 1883	Rord W Nichol, Presbyterian Minister
7	26 February 1883	Desire Verschaffelt Mary Nestor	Desire Verschaffelt Mary Nestor 💍 1883/598	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Cook	37 37	Maraekakaho Maraekakaho	1 year 2 weeks	Church of the Sacred Heart, Hastings	83/324		26 February 1883	Rord Euloge Regnier C.P.
8	2 March 1883	David Henry Proffit Mary Jane Cammock	David Henry Proffit Mary Jane Cammock 💍 1883/595	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	25 17	Hastings Havelock	2 months 12 years	St. Luke's Church, Havelock	83/321	Alescander Cammock, Father	2 March 1883	Rord H. W. St. Hill, Church of England Ministry
9	16 March 1883	John Hearter Sarah Ellen Smutt	John Harker Sarah Ellen Smith 💍 1883/596 John Hannah Sarah Ellen Rutledge 💍 1883/76	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	25 25	Havelock Havelock	12 months 12 months	St. Luke's Church, Havelock	83/322		16 March 1883	Rord H. W. St. Hill, Church of England Ministry
10	24 March 1883	Henry Albert Alexander Martha Rosanna Dowty	Henry Albert Alexander Martha Rosanna Dowty 💍 1883/420	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Dressmaker	24 24	Hastings Hastings	15 months 3 days	Residence of W. McDonald, Hastings	83/338		28 March 1883	Rord John J. Lewis, Wesleyan Methodest

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).