Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 563

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1876

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
677	6 January 1876	John Moore Margaret Kennelly	John Moore Margaret Kennelly 💍 1876/506	Widower Widow	Miner	40 years 37 years	Hokitika Hokitika	10 days 6 years	St. Mary's Church, Hokitika	76/431		6 January 1876	Rev. P.A. Martin
678	8 January 1876	George Bradh Grace Lorden	George Bradt Grace Louden 💍 1876/487	Bachelor Widow	Miner No occupation	48 years 35 years	Blue Spur Blue Spur	6 months 8 years	The office of The Registrar, Hokitika	76/436		8 January 1876	The Registrar
679	18 January 1876	William Kearns Mary Smith	William Kearns Mary Smith 💍 1876/489 William Essery Mary Smith 💍 1876/1009 William Jarves Sarah Smith 💍 1876/2148	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer No occupation	25 years 32 years	Hokitika Hokitika	9 years 9 years	The office of The Registrar, Hokitika	76/438		18 January 1876	The Registrar
680	20 January 1876	John O'Neill Mary Barberry	John O'Neill Mary Carbery 💍 1876/507	Bachelor Widow	Sailmaker	39 years 34 years	Hokitika Hokitika	8 years 9 years	The Church of St Mary, Hokitika	76/432		20 January 1876	Rev. P.A. Martin
681	26 January 1876	William Buchanan Emma Book	William Buchanan Emma Bock 💍 1876/497	Bachelor Spinster	Bank official	43 years 19 years	Greymouth Hokitika	5 years 6 months	The Church of All Saints, Greymouth	76/428	Alfred Book, The father of Emma Book	26 January 1876	Rev. W.A. Pascoe
682	4 February 1876	William Pearson Emma Duncan	William Pearson Emma Duncan 💍 1876/490	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	30 years 18 years	Woodstock South Spit, a minor District of Hokitika	9 years 17 years	The office of The Registrar, Revell St, Hokitika	76/439	John Duncan, The father of Emma Duncan	4 February 1876	The Registrar
683	7 February 1876	William Nanc[illegible]ivell Mary Breeze	William Nancekivell Mary Breeze 💍 1876/504	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 years 22 years	Hokitika Hokitika	9 months 2 months	The Church of England, Hokitika	76/429		7 February 1876	Rev. W.A. Pascoe
684	18 February 1876	William Joseph Stringer Isabella Woodifield Turnbull	William Joseph Stringer Isabella Woodfield Turnbull 💍 1876/99	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist No Occupation	24 years 20 years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 8 years	The private residence of Capt. Turnbull, Fitzherbert St	76/427	Thomas Turnbull, The father of Isabella Turnbull	19 February 1876	Rev. James Galloway
685	19 February 1876	John Henry Fredrick Margaret Upham	John Henry Frederick Eisfelder Margaret Upham 💍 1876/508	Bachelor Widow	Butcher Hotelkeeper	39 years 27 years	Hokitika Hokitika	10 years 9 years	The Manchester Unity Hall, Revell St, Hokitika	76/433		19 February 1876	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).