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 860

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 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
62	1 July 1885	William Ewbank Emily Harriett Lawson	William Ewbank Emily Harriet Lauson 💍 1885/2301	Bachelor Spinster	Cook	28 20	Hastings Napier	9 months	St Johns Church, Hastings	85/12343		1 July 1885	Revd. E. De. Berdt Hovell, English Church
63	1 July 1885	Herbert Gary Robinson Sarah Jane Mogridge	Herbert Davey Robinson Sarah Jane Mogridge 💍 1885/2298	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker	28 20	Napier Napier	2 years 20 years	Residence of Mr Mogridge, Napier	85/12340	Charles Mogridge, father	1 July 1885	Revd. W. Baumber, Wesleyan
64	2 July 1885	William Proppitt Sarah Ann Reynolds	William Proffitt Sarah Ann Reynolds 💍 1885/2309	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Trainer	40 22	Napier Napier	3 weeks 4 days	House of G. R. Grant, Napier	85/12351		2 July 1885	Revd. W. Welsh, English Church
65	6 July 1885	John Henry Neale Emma Gill	John Henry Neales Emma Gill 💍 1885/3829	Widower Spinster	Cooper	33 19	Napier Napier	14 years 19 years	St Augustines Church, Napier	85/12353	William Gill, father	6 July 1885	Revd. I. Parkinson, English Church
66	9 July 1885	Charles Johnson Lina Inglebeken	Charles Johnson Lina Inglebretson 💍 1885/2342 Charles Johnson Susannah Elizabeth Broadmead 💍 1885/341 Charles Johnson Catherine Jane Henry 💍 1886/787 Charles Johnson Mary Ann Bailey 💍 1886/286	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	26 22	Port Ahuriri Napier	10 months 4 years	St Augustines Church, Napier	85/12354	Charles Inglebeken, father	9 July 1885	Revd. I. Parkinson, English Church
67	14 July 1885	Joseph Bicknell Isabella Boggs	Joseph Bicknell Isabella Boggs 💍 1885/2663	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	33 33	Puketapu Napier	23 years 15 years	Residence of Mr Boggs, Napier	85/2846		14 July 1885	Revd. G. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
68	16 July 1885	Thomas Mansfield Mary Ann Augent	Thomas Mansfield Mary McLean 💍 1885/2247	Widower Spinster	Fisherman	37 27	Port Ahuriri Port Ahuriri	13 years 1 month	St Andrews Church, Port Ahuriri	85/2847		16 July 1885	Revd. W. Welsh, English Church
69	21 July 1885	Andrew Priest Christina Gray	Andrew Priest Christina Gray 💍 1885/2664	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 24	Napier Napier	8 years 11 years	Presbyterian Church, Napier	85/2844		21 July 1885	Revd. G. G. Paterson, Presbyterian
70	24 July 1885	William Adams Elizabeth Lucas	William Adams Elizabeth Lucas 💍 1885/2299	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	32 21	Port Ahuriri Napier	1 year 5 years	Wesleyan Parsonage, Port Ahuriri	85/2341		24 July 1885	Revd. W. Baumber, Wesleyan

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).