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 341

District of River Grey Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
150	22 November 1866	James Herby Margaret Harnott	James Kerby Margaret Hartnett 💍 1866/8641 James Keag Margaret Brown 💍 1866/9721 James Hutton Margaret Hogg 💍 1866/9253 James Hardman Margaret Smith 💍 1866/9952	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Hotelkeeper	24 24	Five mile Ahaura	12 mnths 6 mnths	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	1495		29 Nov	John McLiver
151	3 December 1866	Chab Goodfellow Anne Smith	Charles Goodfellow Ann Smith 💍 1866/8470	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Builder -	45 30	Revell Street Hokitika	12 mnths 12 mn	Church of England Hokitika	1415		Decr 3	Henry Wm Harper
152	6th	Johnitheroft Emma Maudons barter	John Ritterath Emma Maiden Carter 💍 1866/8521	Widower Spinster	Butcher Housemaid	42 24	Revell st Hokitika British Hotel Stafford St	10 mnths	Residence of Thos B Drake	1432		6th	T. B. Drake
153	6th	Dan'l Murphy Mary Harrington	Daniel Murphy Margaret Harrington 💍 1866/8647	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper -	30 26	Ahaura -	14 month -	R. C. Church Hokitika	1497		6th	John McLiver
154	10th	Thomas Ludstown Sarah Eliza Hill		Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper -	33 20	Scandinavian Hotel Waimea Beach Hokitika	8 months	Residence of Mrs Hill Hokitika		Elizabeth Hill, mother	10th	Henry Wm Harper
155	19th	Henry Williams Charlotte Dearing	Henry Williams Charlotte Dearing 💍 1866/8428	Bach. Spinster	Builder Domestic Servant	23 19	Greymouth	12 mnths 9 mnths	Residence of Jno Dearing Greymouth	1398	Henry Dearing, father	19th	Joseph White
156	12	Daniel McMillan Issabella Johnson	Daniel McMillan Isabella Johnson 💍 1866/8431	Bachelor Spinster	Shepheight -	29 30	Greymouth -	12 mn 12	Residence of David McMillan	1399		12	Joseph White
157	12	Hugh Dogherty Ellen B Foote	Hugh Doherty Ellen O'Toole 💍 1866/8650	Bachelor Spinster	Publican Barmaid	24 22	Stafford Town Waimea	6 month 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	1478		12	John McLiver
158	16	Peter Hance Mary Diring	Peter Kane Mary W Diviny 💍 1866/8653	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	23 21	Fox's Rush Red Lion Hotel Hokitika	12 mnths 2 months	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	1499		16	John McLiver

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).