Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 621

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 1878

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
776	15 April 1878	Marcus Furlong Smith Rosa Knight Baker	Marcus Furlong South Rosa Knight Baker 💍 1878/1408	Bachelor Spinster	Govt Officer No Occupation	27 Years 22 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	1 Year 2 Months	All Saints Church Hokitika	78/3343		15 April 1878	Revd W. Elton
777	18 April 1878	Uriah Handley Elizabeth Dimcau	Uriah Handley Elizabeth Duncan 💍 1878/1201	Widower Spinster	Hotelkeeper No Occupation	46 Years 18 Years	Woodstock Woodstock	7 Years 18 Months	Office of Registrar Hokitika	78/1200	John Duncau, The Father of Minor	18 April 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
778	20 April 1878	William Smith Margaret Meikly	William Smith Margaret Meiklejohn 💍 1878/1409 William Smith Mary Bragg 💍 1878/1457 William Smith Mary Ann Kane 💍 1878/205 William Smith Mary Jemima Webb 💍 1879/652	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman No Occupation	36 Years 26 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	4 days 4 days	All Saints Church Hokitika	78/3344		20 April 1878	Revd W. Elton
779	22 April 1878	Patrick McCalldin Catherine Bell	Patrick William Caldwell Catherine Bell 💍 1878/1202	Bachelor Widow	Miner Barmaid	30 Years 29 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	4 days 4 days	Office of Registrar Hokitika	78/1201		22 April 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
780	26 April 1878	Henry White Annie Paton	Henry White Annie Paton 💍 1878/1189 William White Anna Paton 💍 1878/1734	Bachelor Widow	Miner No Occupation	37 Years 36 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 Months 6 Months	Private residence of Revd W. Morice Hokitika	78/1194		26 April 1878	Revd W. Morice
781	1 May 1878	John Mattheson Gordon Sarah Elizabeth Ward	John Matheson Gordon Sarah Elizabeth Ward 💍 1878/1179	Bachelor Spinster	Miner No Occupation	34 Years 17 Years	Woodstock Woodstock	7 days 12 Years	Office of Registrar Hokitika	78/1202	Thomas Robert Ward, The Father of Minor	1 May 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
782	20 May 1878	Michael Boyle Mary Witkowski	Michael Boyle Mary Witkouski 💍 1878/1196	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	22 Years 22 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	12 Months 2 Years	St Mary's Church Hokitika	78/1195		20 May 1878	Revd P. A. Martin
783	27 May 1878	Leonard Northeroft Louisa Pellow James	Leonard Northcroft Louisa Pellow James 💍 1878/1410	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk No Occupation	25 Years 19 Years	Hokitika Hokitika	2 Years 4 Years	All Saints Church Hokitika	78/3345	William Henry, The Father of Minor	27 May 1878	Revd W. H. Elton
784	27 June 1878	John Gow Alice M. Ridings	John Pow Alice Maude Ridings 💍 1878/3231	Bachelor Spinster	Mining Manager No Occupation	41 Years 28 Years	Kumara Hokitika	18 Months 7 days	All Saints Church Kumara	78/3289		27 June 1878	Revd W. Elton

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).