Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 525

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 September 1873

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
578	10 July 1873	Archibald Little Annie Owens	Archibald Little Annie Owens 💍 1873/7717	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	30 23	Hokitika Hokitika	6 years 4 years	Diggers Arms Hotel, Hokitika	73/989	15 July 1873	Rev. James Kirkland
579	1 July 1873	Robert Loughlin Elizabeth Brown	Robert Jonghin Elisabeth Brown 💍 1873/7669	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Servant	29 21	Hokitika Hokitika	10 months 9 months	All Saints Church	73/991	21 July 1873	Rev. Arch H. Harper
580	2 August 1873	John Johnson Margaret Dean	John Johnson Margaret Deane 💍 1873/7675 Robert Johnson Margaret McMillan 💍 1873/7186	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Master	29 20	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	Private residence of Mr. Dean, Hokitika	73/993	8 August 1873	Rev. John S. Kishworth
581	8 August 1873	George Mee Fanny Holliday	George Mee Fanny Halliday 💍 1873/7600	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist & Druggist	30 24	Hokitika Greymouth	2 years 1 year	Church of England, Greymouth	93/947	9 August 1873	Rev. Mr. Watkins
582	18 August 1873	Michael McSweeney Ellis Collgin	Michael McInerney Ellen Collgin 💍 1873/7687	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 27	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 2 years	Roman Catholic Church	93/999	19 August 1873	Rev. P.A. Martin
583	18 August 1873	Peter Walsh Margaret Black	Peter Walsh Margaret Black 💍 1873/7690	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	34 25	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 weeks	Roman Catholic Church	73/978	18 August 1873	Rev. P.A. Martin
584	25 August 1873	William Mason Margaret Miller	William Mason Margaret Miller 💍 1873/7720 William Hall Mary Miller 💍 1873/11227	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman Dressmaker	28 21	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 10 days	Presbyterian Manse	73/988	23 August 1873	Rev. J. Kirkland
585	5 September 1873	William Smith Bridget O'Leary	William Smith Bridget O'leary 💍 1873/7693	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Hotel keeper	30 21	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 12 months	Phoenix Hotel, Revell St	73/979	5 September 1873	Rev. P.A. Martin
586	19 September 1873	John Doorian Maria Campbell	John Doorian Maria Campbell 💍 1873/8854	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 26	Grey District Hokitika	4 years 3 days	Roman Catholic Chapel	73/1374	19 September 1873	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).