Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 421

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
361	2 January 1870	Patrick Ready Mary Foley	Patrick Ready Mary Foley 💍 1870/6981	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 29	Waimea Hokitika	2 years 4 months	Roman Catholic Church	2 January 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
362	3 January 1870	James Black Marion McConnon	James Black Marion McConnon 💍 1870/6870	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	Over age Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 3 months	Private Residence	3 January 1870	Revd. J. Gow
363	10 January 1870	William Halcrow Ann Smith	William Halcrow Ann Smith 💍 1870/6876	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 23	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 Days	Presbyterian Manse	10 January 1870	Revd. J. Gow
364	11 January 1870	James Taylor Rosa Slevin	James Taylor Rose Slevin 💍 1870/6987	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	24 23	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 2 years	Roman Catholic Presbytery	11 January 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
365	18 January 1870	Michael O'Donnell Margaret Foley	Michael McDonnall Margaret Foley 💍 1870/6762	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	Over age Over age	Hau Hau Hokitika District Greenstone	2 years 12 months	Roman Catholic Church, Greymouth	18 January 1870	Rev. Mr. Hahnrick
366	18 January 1870	Edward Johnson Elizabeth Lester	Edward Johnson Elizabeth Lester 💍 1870/6933	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	33 31	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 1 year	Church of England	20 January 1870	Archdeacon Harper
367	22 January 1870	Moritz Mandell Anne Sigfred	Moritz Mandell Annie Seigfried 💍 1870/6990	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper	Over age Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 14 days	Roman Catholic Presbytery	22 January 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
368	8 February 1870	Thomas Pile Ellen Greene	Thomas Pile Ellen Flynn 💍 1870/6993	Bachelor Widow	Baker	35 30	Hokitika Hokitika	18 month 2 years	Roman Catholic Church	8 February 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
369	7 February 1870	Joseph Grimmond Mary O'Brien	Joseph Grimmond Mary O'Brien 💍 1870/6996	Bachelor Spinster	Mining Manager Barmaid	Over age Over age	Ross Hokitika	4 years 2 years	Private Residence, Ross	7 February 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
370	18 February 1870	Daniel O'Loan Hannah M Golden	Daniel O'Loan Hannah Mary Golden 💍 1870/6999	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	1 week 2 weeks	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	18 February 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
371	18 February 1870	Claus Geibel Bertha Franziska Ottilie Brandt	Claus Geibel Bertha Franziska Ottivie Brandt 💍 1870/6879	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	29 Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	14 days 2 months	Private residence, Hokitika	18 February 1870	Revd. J. Gow

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).