Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 415

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1871

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
431	5 January 1871	Inia Juhuru Were Mina		Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25	Arahura Arahura	9 days 3 days	Church of England Hokitika	M 71/528		5 January 1871	The Ven Arch. Harper
432	10 January 1871	James Macadams Rosalie Frances Reagh	James M Dawson Rosalie F Reagh 💍 1871/5496	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Teacher	26 25	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Roman Catholic Hokitika	M 71/543	Rev. In Goutiere	10 January 1871	Rev. In Goutiere
433	12 January 1871	George Diednich Ludwig Muller Frederika Henrietta Louisa Krone	George Diedrich Ludwig Müller Frederika Henrietta Louisa Kvone 💍 1871/5457	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	42 28	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Church of England Hokitika	M 71/529		12 January 1871	The Ven Arch. Harper
434	19 January 1871	Clement Writer Edith Willis	Clement Winter Edith Willis 💍 1871/5460	Bachelor Spinster	Book Officer	24 29	Hokitika Greymouth	3 days 9 months	Church of England Hokitika	M 71/530		19 January 1871	The Ven Arch. Harper
435	24 January 1871	Thomas Pascoe Annie Wallis	Thomas Pascoe Trelbilcock Annie Watkins 💍 1871/5487	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Publican	35 25	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Office of Registrar Hokitika	M 71/540		24 January 1871	F. Dermott Registrar
436	25 January 1871	David Kenny Harrieth Alexander	David Kinny Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1871/7512 David Hill Mary Ann Alexander 💍 1871/6039	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	35 36	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	At the residence of George Davidson Carpenter Bealey Street Hokitika	M 71/240		25 January 1871	Rev. Geo Cowie
437	8 February 1871	Joseph Halligan Elizabeth Crawford	Joseph Halligan Elizabeth Crawford 💍 1871/5499 James Tinning Elizabeth Crawford 💍 1871/8706	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	27 22	Kanieri Hokitika District Hokitika	12 months 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	M 71/544		8 February 1871	Rev. P. S. Martin
438	14 February 1871	Timothy McCarthy Johanna O'Keefe	Timothy McCarthy Joannah O'Keeffe 💍 1871/5502	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	33 24	Hokitika Ross Hokitika	3 days 3 years	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	M 71/545		14 February 1871	Rev. P. S. Martin
439	15 February 1871	Louis Cramer Eliza Velley	Louis Cramer Eliza Kelly 💍 1871/5505	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper Servant	38 35	Hokitika Hokitika	5 years 3 years	European Hotel Gibsons Quay Hokitika	M 71/546		15 February 1871	Rev. 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 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).