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 423

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
382	5 April 1870	William Grant Emily Ives	William Grant Emily Ives 💍 1870/6897	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	25 22	Hokitika Hokitika	2 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church		5 April 1870	Revd. J. Gow
383	11 April 1870	John Grant Marion Porter	John Grant Marion Porter 💍 1870/6894	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	28 Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	1 year 1 year	Private Residence		11 April 1870	Revd. J. Gow
384	12 April 1870	John Holley Mary Ann Duncan	John Holley Mary Ann Duncan 💍 1870/6945	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	22 19	Hokitika Hokitika	2 years 1 year	Church of England	John Duncan, father of Mary Ann Duncan	12 April 1870	Revd. Archn. Harper
385	16 April 1870	Edward Spencer Eliza McGill	Edward Spencer Eliza McGill 💍 1870/7	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 25	Hokitika Hokitika	14 months 2 months	Church of England		16 April 1870	Revd. Archn. Harper
386	16 April 1870	George Tillbrook Rebecca Johnston	George Tilbrook Rebecca Johnston 💍 1870/6	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	24 26	Hokitika Hokitika	2 years 2 years	Church of England		16 April 1870	Revd. Archn. Harper
387	20 April 1870	Ernest Charles Hutton Louisa Ann Buxton	Earnest Charles Hutton Louisa Ann Buxton 💍 1870/7047	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 18	Hokitika Hokitika	4 days 2 years	Private Residence	John Buxton, father of Louisa Ann Buxton	20 April 1870	Revd. J. Y. Shaw
388	28 April 1870	James White Elsie McLean	James White Elsie McLean 💍 1870/6900	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	38 28	Kanieri Hokitika	18 Mos 4 years	Presbyterian Church		28 April 1870	Revd. John Gow
389	2 May 1870	Robert McCallum Isabella Smith	Robert McCallum Isabella Smith 💍 1870/6903	Widower Spinster	Grocer	28 18	Hoktika Hokitika	5 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church	Isabella Smith, mother of Isabella Smith	2 May 1870	Revd. J. Gow
390	4 May 1870	Henry Creutzfeldt Ellen Talbot	Henry Creutzfeldt Ellen Talbot 💍 1870/7008	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 21	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 2 years	Roman Catholic Church		4 May 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin
391	11 May 1870	John Weir Ellen Elizabeth Davison	John Weir Ellen Elizabeth Davison 💍 1870/6948	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 24	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Church of England		11 May 1870	Revd. Archn. Harper
392	14 May 1870	William Smith Jane Harvey	William Smith Jane Harvey 💍 1870/6906	Bachelor Widow	Miner	32 Over Age	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Private Residence		14 May 1870	Revd. John Gow
393	16 May 1870	Naylor Hillary Hanny Kirwin	Naylor Hillary Fanny Kirwen 💍 1870/7053	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 23	Hokitika Hokitika	1 week 3 months	Private Residence		16 May 1870	Revd. J. Y. Shaw
394	26 May 1870	Alfred Hugh Morey Amelia Main	Alfred Hugh Morey Amelia Main 💍 1870/7050	Widower Spinster	Engineer	40 22	Hokitika Hokitika	5 years 3 years	Wesleyan Church		26 May 1870	Revd. J. Y. Shaw
395	11 June 1870	Hugh Brown Margaret Cody	Hugh Brown Margaret Cody 💍 1870/7011	Bachelor Spinster	Digger Servant	Over age Over age	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Church		11 June 1870	Revd. P.A. Martin

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).