Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 946

District of Napier Quarter ending 30 September 1889

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 1889	Edward Louis Smith Amie Maria Corbett	Edward Louis Smith Annie Maria Corbett 💍 1889/2253	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Milliner	28 23	Napier Napier	3 years 13 years	St Augustins Church Napier	89/2180		3 July 1889	Rev W Parkinson Church of England
52	3 July 1889	Murdoch Mackay Mary Tait	Murdock MacKay Mary Tait 💍 1889/2172	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Station Manager	30 27	Napier Napier	1 month 1 month	Presbyterian Church Napier	89/2189		3 July 1889	Rev I G Paterson Presbyterian
53	6 July 1889	Joseph Burton Kells Lucy Crowley	Joseph Burton Kells Lucy Crowley 💍 1889/2167	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager Station Manager	31 27	Longoio Napier	6 years 8 years	The Cathedral Napier	89/2195		6 July 1889	Rev D B Hovell Church of England
54	8 July 1889	Henry Lewis Clark Madeline Crocker	Henry Lewis Clark Madeline Crocker 💍 1889/2171	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic	34 19	Petane Petane	7 years 4 months	at the Residence of James Thomas Petane	89/2198		8 July 1889	Rev G H Preston Church of England
55	16 July 1889	John Charles Woodward Mary Fleming Hall	John Charles Woodward Mary Fleming Hall 💍 1889/2271	Bachelor Spinster	School Teacher School Teacher	24 20	Gisborne Norwood Napier	4 years 3 days 11 months 4 days	Office of the Registrar at Napier	89/2184	Matthew Hall father	16 July 1889	Sydney I Sage Registrar
56	30 July 1889	William Le Bas Rebecca Mary Carver	William Le Bas Rebecca Mary Carver 💍 1889/2173	Bachelor Spinster	Cab driver Domestic	24 21	Napier Napier	5 years 13 years	at the residence of Mr Drogery Napier	89/2180		30 July 1889	Rev I G Paterson Presbyterian
57	31 July 1889	Angus Daniel Grant Rose Elizabeth Gilbert	Angus Daniel Grant Rose Elizabeth Gilberd 💍 1889/2274	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Cabinet Maker	28 18	Auckland Napier	6 years 9 months 6 years 9 months	R.C. Chapel Napier	89/2187	I B Gilbert father	31 July 1889	Rev C E Beecroft Wesleyan
58	5 August 1889	James Allan Wilhelmina Friberg	James Allan Margaret Price 💍 1889/3449	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman Domestic	22 19	Napier Napier	5 days 19 years	R.C. Chapel Napier	89/2186	Wm Friberg father	5 August 1889	Father Grogan R.C.
59	14 August 1889	Angus Daniel Grant Rose Elizabeth Gilbert	Angus Daniel Grant Rose Elizabeth Gilberd 💍 1889/2274	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker Cabinet Maker	29 18	Auckland Napier	25 years 4 days 6 years	R.C. Chapel Napier	89/2187	I B Gilbert father	14 August 1889	Rev C E Beecroft 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).