Intentions to Marry, 1884

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840396, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 693

District of Napier Quarter ending 31 March 1884

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
10	29 January 1884	John Homes Harvey Annie Isabella Elliott	John Thomas Harvey Annie Isabella Elliott 💍 1884/365	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 28	Port Ahuriri Napier	8 years 3 years	Residence of Thomas Harvey, Port Ahuriri	84/866		29 January 1884	Rev W. Welsh, English Church
11	31 January 1884	Daniel Romes O'Sullivan Mary O'Sullivan	Daniel OSullivan Mary OSullivan 💍 1884/2662 William Bain Mary O'Sullivan 💍 1884/2963	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	28 27	Farndon Napier	6 months 3 years	St Marys Chapel	84/1224		31 January 1884	Rev A. C. Cassidy, Roman Catholic
12	31 January 1884	Arthur Hedley Hopkison Eliza Jane Walden	Arthur Healey Hopkinson Eliza Jane Walden 💍 1884/2270	Bachelor Spinster	Stable Keeper	27 24	Hastings Hastings	3 years 1 year	St Johns Church, Napier	84/1284		31 January 1884	Rev De Berdt Hovell, English Church
13	11 February 1884	Thomas John Thompson Elizabeth Aiken Douglas	Thomas John Thompson Elizabeth Aitken Dempster 💍 1884/1949	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 24	Hastings Napier	6 years 1 week	St Pauls Presbyterian Church, Hastings	84/829		11 February 1884	Rev J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
14	18 February 1884	John Nelson Elizabeth Nelson Read Swanson	John Nelson Elizabeth Nelson Reid Swanson 💍 1884/1950	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	34 22	Port Ahuriri Napier	5 years 1 year	House of Mr Cameron, Carlylist Napier	84/830		18 February 1884	Rev J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
15	22 February 1884	David Bruce Frame Annie Elvira Steedon	David Bruce Frame Annie Elvira Herdson 💍 1884/3731	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	26 24	Napier Napier	2 years 8 weeks	Residence of Rev J. G. Paterson, South Napier	84/831		22 February 1884	Rev J. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
16	22 February 1884	Edwin Jollison Mary Joseph	Edwin Tollison Mary Joseph 💍 1884/314	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	26 24	Napier Napier	11 years 4 years	Residence of Rev J. I. Lewis, Napier	84/362		22 February 1884	Rev J. I. Lewis, Wesleyan
17	22 February 1884	Alexander Anthony Linda Clarabel Collin	Alexander Anthony Linda Clara Collins 💍 1884/315	Bachelor Spinster	Station hand	21 18	Napier Napier	7 years 18 months	Residence of Mr Robinson, Napier	84/363	Elizabeth Broadfield, Mother	22 February 1884	Rev J. I. Lewis, Wesleyan
18	23 February 1884	John Paddison Elizabeth Sands	John Paddison Elizabeth Sands 💍 1884/348	Bachelor Spinster		31 30	Napier Napier	8 years 5 months	Trinity Church, Napier	84/364		23 February 1884	Rev J. I. 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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).