Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 865

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 June 1885

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
27	1 April 1885	James Stafford Elizabeth Braske	James Stafford Elizabeth Bourke 💍 1885/1342	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	34 36	Napier Napier	20 years 9 years	St Johns Church	85/1363		1 April 1885	Rev. G. Berdt Howell, English Church
28	4 April 1885	William Macmillian Elizabeth Palmer Bell	William MacMillan Elizabeth Charlotte Palmer Bell 💍 1885/1343	Bachelor Spinster	Sheep Farmer	25 25	Napier Napier	3 days 5 years	St Johns Church	85/1364		4 April 1885	Rev. G. Berdt Howell, English Church
29	4 April 1885	Joseph Cossey Emily Whitehead	Joseph Cossy Emily Whitehead 💍 1885/1328	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 24	Napier Napier	3 days 3 days	Residence of R.S. Palmer	85/1373		4 April 1885	Rev. R.S. Paterson, Presbyterian
30	7 April 1885	Alexander Edward Sheveno Elizabeth Mottey		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 22	Petane Petane	12 months 14 months	St Marys Chapel	85/1356		7 April 1885	Rev. F. Grogan, Roman Catholic
31	15 April 1885	Noah Abbott Helen White	Joseph McDonnett Helen White 💍 1885/1345	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	21 25	Napier Napier	1 week 1 week	St Johns Church	85/1366		15 April 1885	Rev. G. Berdt Howell, English Church
32	16 April 1885	Alexander Dickie Margaret Luddington	Alexander Dickie Margaret Luddington 💍 1885/1329	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	39 32	Napier Napier	1 week 3 weeks	Residence of R.S. Paterson	85/1374		16 April 1885	Rev. R.S. Paterson, Presbyterian
33	16 April 1885	Charles Henry Faulkner Sarah Charleton	Charles Henry Faulknor Sarah Charlton 💍 1885/1327	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder	20 17	Napier Napier	23 years 11 years	St Augustines Church	85/1372	Margaret Charleton, Mother	16 April 1885	Rev. J. Parkinson, English Church
34	21 April 1885	Matthew Thomas Philson Catherine Jane Ellison	Matthew Thomas Philson Catherine Jane Ellison 💍 1885/1346	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	26 22	Napier Napier	20 years 20 years	St Johns Church	85/1367		21 April 1885	Rev. G. Berdt Howell, English Church
35	22 April 1885	James Goodall Gloriana Pearson Finlayson	John James Goodall Gloriana Pearson Finlayson 💍 1885/1526	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 17	Moangiarangi Moangiarangi	2 years 17 years	Residence of Wm Finlayson	85/1338	William Finlayson, Father	22 April 1885	Rev. J. Mackellar, Presbyterian

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).