Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 543

District of Hokitika 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
151	3 October 1872	Henry John Carruthers Edwards Ellen Ann Coughlan	Henry John Carruthers Edwards Ellen Anne Caughlan 💍 1872/7583	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	37 28	Hokitika Hokitika	9 months 6 months	Church of England Hokitika	72/1998		3 October 1872	Ven Archd Harper
152	22 October 1872	John Herbert Hawkins Agnes Sophia Monypenny Walymple	John Herbert Hawkins Agnes Sophia Wemyss Dalrymple 💍 1872/7586	Bachelor Spinster	Architect & Surveyor Clergyman	27 22	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 1 year	Church of St Marys Hokitika	72/1999		22 October 1872	Ven Archd Harper
153	1 November 1872	Maurice Coady Catherine O'Brian	Maurice Coady Catherine O'Brien 💍 1872/3607	Bachelor Widow	Miner Barmaid	35 27	Stafford Town Hokitika	2 years 6 months	Church of England Hokitika	72/1995		1 November 1872	Rev P.A. Martin
154	5 November 1872	George Auther Whitford Catherine Sarah Page	George Arthur Whitford Catherine Sarah Paget 💍 1872/7589	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Governess	Underage Underage 19 years	Hokitika Hokitika	6 years 4 days	Church of England Hokitika	72/2000		5 November 1872	Ven Archd Harper
155	11 November 1872	Michael Gordon Eliza Barry	Michael Gordon Eliza Barry 💍 1872/7523	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Housekeeper	38 21	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 1 month	Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika	72/1996		11 November 1872	Rev. P.A. Martin
156	25 November 1872	David Anderson Mayo Mary Jane Goulding	David Anderson Hayes Mary Jane Goulding 💍 1872/7592	Sawyer Widow		31 22	Hokitika Hokitika	7 years 4 years	Church of England Hokitika	72/2001		25 November 1872	Ven Archd Harper
157	27 November 1872	Robert Baig Forsythe Annie Elizabeth Ormiston	Robert Craig Forsyth Annie Elizabeth Ormsby 💍 1872/7607	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	25 25	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 years	At residence of Mr. Forsythe Revn Terrace Hokitika	72/2006		27 November 1872	Rev. J.N. Butland
158	30 December 1872	Edward Rogers Catherine Bolton	Edward Rodgers Catherine Dalton 💍 1873/5297	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	37 34	Blue Spur Hokitika Hokitika	6 years 4 years	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	73/160		30 December 1872	Rev. P.C. Martin
159	31 December 1872	Willam Morton Parkip Julia Emma Hawkins	William Morton Purkiss Julia Emma Hawkins 💍 1873/7657	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	26 20	Ross Hokitika	2 1/2 years 3 years	All Sts Church Hokitika	73/96	J. Hawkins	31 December 1872	Ven Archd. H. Harper

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).