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 491

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 December 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
66	1 October 1883	Charles Oscar Fischer Bertha Gertrude Schuabe	Charles Oscar Fischer Bertha Gertrude Schwabe 💍 1883/2904	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	22 19	Gisborne Napier	21 months	House of Mr. Schuabe	83/12930	Mr. Schuabe, Father	1 October 1883	Rev. D. Sidey, Presbyterian
67	5 October 1883	David Hannan Ann Monagan	David Hannon Ann Monajen 💍 1883/2757	Bachelor Widow	Bootmaker	38 37	Napier Napier	4 years 16 years	St. Mary's Chapel	83/12924		5 October 1883	Rev. I. Forest, Roman Catholic
68	5 October 1883	William Coleman Letitia Ann Jenkins	William Coleman Letitia Ann Jenkins 💍 1883/2748	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 21	Napier Napier	4 days 3 years	St. John's Church	83/12914		5 October 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
69	10 October 1883	Rodrick Mathison Anna Parkin	Roderick Matheson Anna Parkin 💍 1883/2750	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 18	Pohui Napier	1 year 14 years	St. John's Church	83/12918	Sarah Topping, Mother	10 October 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
70	10 October 1883	Lionel Wallis Lucy Catherine Lascelles	Lionel Wallis Lucy Catherine Cockburn Lascelles 💍 1883/2742	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	26 26	Pukitapu Clive	3 weeks 6 years	Clive Church	83/12910		10 October 1883	Rev. A. H. Maclean, English Church
71	10 October 1883	Thomas Martin Murphy Margaret Brodrick	Thomas Martin Murphy Margaret Broderick 💍 1883/2885	Widower Spinster	Printer	28 22	Napier Napier	18 years 4 years	St. Mary's Chapel	83/12925		10 October 1883	Rev. I. Forest, Roman Catholic
72	12 October 1883	John Kinnell Emma Hands	John Sainell Emma Hauds 💍 1883/2752	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 19	Napier Napier	7 years 9 years	St. John's Church	83/12919	Joseph Hands, Father	12 October 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
73	12 October 1883	John William Coth Louisa Le Ringnam	John William Cook Louisa Le Keoigman 💍 1883/2749	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	25 23	Gisborne Napier	6 months 6 years	St. John's Church	83/12917		12 October 1883	Rev. De Berdt Hovell, English Church
74	13 October 1883	Charles McCarthy Mary McMahon	Charles McCarthy Mary McMahon 💍 1883/3630	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 21	Napier Napier	5 years 4 years	St. Mary's Chapel	83/12926		13 October 1883	Rev. I. Forest, Roman Catholic

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).