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 0623

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 September 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
785	13 July 1878	Lockhard Dobbie Easton Catherine Hill	Lockhart Dobbie Easton Catherine Hill 💍 1878/2025	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher No occupation	24 years 23 years	Hokitika Hokitika	11 months 7 days	Private residence of W. A. Scott, Hokitika	78/1945		13 July 1878	Revd W Morice
786	7 August 1878	George Cook Isabella Downes	George Cooke Isabella Downes 💍 1878/2026	Bachelor Spinster	Builder Dressmaker	24 years 24 years	Hokitika Kumieri	2 years 2.5 years	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/1946		9 August 1878	The Registrar
787	16 August 1878	George Rich Mary Ann Josephine Clarke	George Rich Mary Anne Josephine Clarke 💍 1878/2022	Widower Spinster	Miner No occupation	39 years 24 years	Hokitika Hokitika	12 years 3 months	In the Church of St Mary, Hokitika	78/1942		16 August 1878	Rev P A Martin
788	18 August 1878	Archibald Thompson Eliza Dingwall	Archibald Thomson Eliza Dingwall 💍 1878/2027	Widower Widow	Miner Housekeeper	42 years 34 years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 months 6 months	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/1944		18 August 1878	The Registrar
789	20 August 1878	John Pearson Souter Margaret Houlahan	John Pearson Souter Margaret Houlahan 💍 1878/2028	Bachelor Spinster	Wardsman Nurse	37 years 24 years	Hokitika Hospital Hokitika Hospital	6 months 6 months	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/1948		20 August 1878	The Registrar
790	26 August 1878	Edward Hankins Julia Dunbar	Edward Haukins Julia Dunbar 💍 1878/2029	Widower Widow	Journalist Haberdasher	49 years 38 years	Hokitika Hokitika	6 months 10 years	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/1949		26 August 1878	The Registrar
791	4 September 1878	Philip Henry Amberger Susan Breach	Philip Henry Amberyn Susan Breach 💍 1878/3234	Bachelor Spinster (a minor)	Tinsmith Servant	26 years 19 years	Hokitika Hokitika	8 years 2 years	In the Church of England, Hokitika	78/3291	Louis Breach, the Father	4 September 1878	Rev M.H Elton
792	23 September 1878	George Caddell Jane Smith	George Caddell Jane Smith 💍 1878/2023 George Lind Julina Smith 💍 1878/1098	Widower Widow	Boatman Servant	40 years 30 years	Hokitika Hokitika	8 years 4 months	In the Church of St Mary, Hokitika	78/1943		23 September 1878	Rev P A Martin
793	30 September 1878	Patrick Henry O'Neill Ellen Greenhales	Patrick Henry O'Neill Ellen McGlynn 💍 1878/2024	Bachelor Spinster (a minor)	Bushman No occupation	33 years 17 years	Kumieri Woodstock	2 years 2 years	In the Church of St Mary, Hokitika	78/1974	Ellen Mc Glynn, Bull Mother	30 September 1878	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).