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 489

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 1883 Registrar John Grubb

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
51	3 July 1883	William Honey Davey Mary Adelaide House	William Henry Davey Mary Adelaide House 💍 1883/2017	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 20	Puketapu Puketapu	4 years 23 years	Residence of Mr. House	83/2024		3 July 1883	Rev. Ch. Luke, English Church
52	11 July 1883	Arthur Wright Louisa King	Arthur Wright Louisa King 💍 1883/3590	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 24	Napier Napier	6 months 8 months	St. John's Church	83/2039		11 July 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
53	17 July 1883	Johan Adolph Frederick Anderson Harriett Andrew	Johan Adloph Fredirick Anderson Harriett Andrews 💍 1883/2018	Bachelor Widow	Mariner	36 38	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	2 years 12 years	Registrar's Office	83/2024		17 July 1883	Registrar, Napier
54	18 July 1883	James Heron Ruth Ruddock	James Heron Ruth Ruddock 💍 1883/1998	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	41 29	Napier Taradale	7 years 5 years	Residence of D. Spence	83/2029		18 July 1883	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
55	19 July 1883	Alfred Arthur Stanley Annie Lory	Alfred Arthur Stanley Annie Lory 💍 1883/1997	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 20	Napier Napier	14 days 9 years	St. John's Church	83/2040		19 July 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
56	25 July 1883	John Orr Mary Theobald	John Orr Mary Nicoll 💍 1883/1994	Widower Spinster	Merchant	42 24	Napier Papakura	16 years 1 year	Residence of Mr. B. Nicoll, Papakura, Auckland	83/2030		25 July 1883	Rev. Mr. Rorrie, Presbyterian
57	4 August 1883	David Anderson Margaret Jane Webb	David Anderson Margaret Jane Webb 💍 1883/2089	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	39 21	Te Haroto Te Haroto	1 year 1 year	Residence of Mr. Anderson	83/2030		4 August 1883	Rev. H. Nichol, Presbyterian
58	9 August 1883	Arthur John Ewan Annie Garry	Arthur John McEwan Annie Garry 💍 1883/2097	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	23 20	Napier Napier	3 days 20 years	Residence of Mr. Garry	83/2031	John Garry, father	9 August 1883	Rev. I. J. Lewis, Wesleyan

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).