Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 513

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar J. H. Dermott

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
741	10 July 1877	John Zerbow Frances Cassidy	John Zerbon Frances Cassidy 💍 1877/1804	Widower Widow	Storeman	46 40	Hokitika Hokitika	12 years 3 weeks	St Mary's Church Hokitika	77/1459		10 July 1877	Rev. P. A. Martin
742	17 July 1877	Daniel McPherson Ellen Roberts	Daniel McPherson Ellen Roberts 💍 1877/2180	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter No occupation	36 17	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 4 years	Private Residence of Bridegroom	77/2146	Edward Roberts the Father	17 July 1877	Rev. W. Morice
743	19 July 1877	George Hatch Margaret Lyons	George Hatch Margaret Lyons 💍 1877/1805	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter No occupation	29 24	Hokitika Kamieri	7 months 3 months	Commercial Hotel, Kamieri	77/1460		19 July 1877	Rev. P. A. Martin
744	23 July 1877	William Michael Wade Fanny Maria Jones		Bachelor Spinster	Draper No occupation	23 18	Kumara Hokitika	12 months 9 years	Registrar's Office Hokitika Kumara	77/1462	Joseph Jones the Father	26 July 1877	J. Dermott, Registrar
745	7 August 1877	John Heinrich Ghist Julia Makolinski	John Heinrich Ghist Julia Makolinski 💍 1877/1808	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	39 24	Kamieri Kamieri	18 months 6 months	Registrar's Office Hokitika	77/1463		7 August 1877	J. Dermott, Registrar
746	21 August 1877	Immanuel Dimark Jane Ann Lightfoot	Emmanuel Dinnant Jane Ann Lightfoot 💍 1877/1816	Bachelor Spinster	Draper No occupation	25 19	Ross Hokitika	9 years 5 years	Registrar's Office Ross Hokitika	77/1464	Margaret Dark Mother of Minor	21 August 1877	J. Dermott, Registrar
747	27 August 1877	William Theodore Irving Robina Anderson	William Theodore Irving Robina Anderson 💍 1877/2181	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	32 20	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 20 months	Private Residence of W. Anderson Renfrew St Hokitika	77/2147	Elizabeth Anderson the Mother of Minor	27 August 1877	Rev. W. Morice
748	30 August 1877	James Corsan Margaret Wright	James Corsan Margaret Wright 💍 1877/1827	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	37 18	Woodstock Woodstock	3 years 3 months	Registrar's Office Hokitika	77/1465	William Wright the Father of Minor	6 September 1877	J. Dermott, Registrar
749	1 September 1877	Thomas M. Atkinson Mary E. Brocklehurst	Thomas Matthew Atkinson Mary Elizabeth Brocklehurst 💍 1877/1802	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor No occupation	24 21	Kamieri Hau Hau	10 years 5 years	All Saints Church Hokitika	77/1458		1 September 1877	Rev. W. Pascoe
750	15 September 1877	Edwin Gill Ellen Kidd	Edwin Gill Ellen Kidd 💍 1877/1834	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner No occupation	25 17	Hokitika Hokitika	5 days 10 years	Registrar's Office Hokitika	77/1466	John Kidd the Father of Minor	15 September 1877	J. Dermott, Registrar
751	22 September 1877	John Cameron Catherine Leary	John Cameron Catherine O'Leary 💍 1877/1806	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Proprietor No occupation	37 25	Hokitika Hokitika	10 years 3 years	Phoenix Hotel Revell St Hokitika	77/1461		22 September 1877	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 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).