Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 332

District of River Grey Quarter ending Apr - Jun

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
73	21 May 1866	Daniel Fitzgerald Bridget O'Dea	Daniel Fitzgerald Bridget O Dea 💍 1866/8548	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 23	Okarito	1 month 2	Roman Catholic Chapel	1442	21 May 1866	Rev. John McGirr
74	29 May 1866	Peter Betz Magdalena Benz	Peter Betz Magdalena Benz 💍 1866/8359	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	32 23	Kanieri	10 2	Registrar's Office	1373	29 May 1866	Edward Patten
75	1 June 1866	Hugh Camerow Mary Graham	Hugh Cameron Mary Graham 💍 1866/8290	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	32 26	South Spit Hokitika Bank of New South Wales. Hokitika	8 6	The House of [UNCLEAR]	1350	1 June 1866	Rev. John Campbell
76	4 June 1866	Thomas Harrison Mary Ann Douglass	Thomas Harrison Mary Ann Douglass 💍 1866/8362	Bachelor Widow	Butcher Widow	26 30	Kanieri	14 4	Registrar's Office Hokitika	1374	4 June 1866	Edward Patten
77	4 June 1866	William Henry Runk Caroline Amelia Jallor	William Henry Russell Caroline Amelia Talbot 💍 1866/8512	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 32	Maw Haw Creek	3 3	The House of the Rev. B. Drake	1419	4 June 1866	Rev. B. Drake
78	13 June 1866	Michael Cortetto Jane Lynch	Michael Costello Jane Lynch 💍 1866/8560 Michael Donovan Kate Lynch 💍 1866/9028	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Publican	28 24	Ross Town, Totara	10 10	Catholic Church Hokitika	1446	13 June 1866	Rev. John McGirr
79	14 June 1866	Rasmus Jacobsen Johanna Augusta Christina Lops	Rasmus Jacobsen Johanna Christina Augusta Cops 💍 1866/8296	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel keeper	28 22	Ross Town	10 4	Jones Hall	1352	14 June 1866	Rev. John Campbell
80	15 June 1866	James Howatt Hannah Williams	James Howat Hannah Williams 💍 1866/8293 James Cotter Rosina Williams 💍 1866/6604	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 21	Arahaura	15 6	Wesleyan Chapel Arahaura River	1357	15 June 1866	Rev. John Campbell
81	16 June 1866	Denis Ballinars Mary Barry	Denis Culnane Mary Barry 💍 1866/8551	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 26	Dunedin Hotel Hokitika Munster Hotel Hokitika	4 2	Catholic Church	1443	16 June 1866	Rev. John McGirr
82	20 June 1866	John Atchison Carr Mary Donnelly	John A Carr Mary Reilly 💍 1866/8554	Widower Widow	Draper	33 25	Revell St. Hokitika	13 5	Catholic Church	1444	20 June 1866	Rev. John McGirr

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

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).