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 625

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 December 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
794	1 October 1878	Joseph Barblowsky Bertha Johanna Harthe	Joseph Barblowsky Bertha Johanna Hartke 💍 1878/2774	Bachelor Spinster (a Minor)	Miner No Occupation	22 years 19 years	Kanieri Kanieri	18 months 9 months	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/2815	Caroline Burk, the Mother of Minor	1 October 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
795	16 October 1878	John Graham Mary Spring (a Minor)	John Graham Mary Spring 💍 1878/2778	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher No Occupation	28 years 19 years	Kokatahi Hokitika	11 years 11 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Hokitika	78/2819	John Spring, the Father of Minor	16 October 1878	Revd W. Smith, Wes
796	9 November 1878	William Edward Thomas Annie Miller	William Edward Thomas Annie Miller 💍 1878/2775	Widower Widow	Miner Housekeeper	58 years 44 years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/2816		9 November 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
797	26 November 1878	Theodore Carl Reiha Kruschewsky Mary Burke	Theodor Carl Reiha Von Kruschewsky Mary Burke 💍 1878/2777	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Barmaid	41 years 30 years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 2 months	In the Private Residence of M. Schulties, Hokitika	78/2818		26 November 1878	Revd W. Smith, Wes
798	11 December 1878	Richard Kidwill Mary Murtha (a Minor)	Richard Kidwill Mary Murtha 💍 1878/2776	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher No Occupation	39 years 19 years	Hokitika Hokitika	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar, Hokitika	78/2817	Charles Murtha, The Father of Minor	11 December 1878	F. Dermott, Registrar
799	19 December 1878	Arthur Davis Jeannie Burridge (a Minor)	Arthur Davies Jeannie Burridge 💍 1878/1411	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver Barmaid	27 years 19 years	Hokitika Hokitika	2.5 years 11 years	Presbyterian Church, Hokitika	78/3376	Jane Turner, the Mother of Minor	19 December 1878	Revd W. Morice, Pres
800	30 December 1878	George Henry Clarkson Euphen Nicol (a Minor)	George Henry Clarkson Euphen Nicol 💍 1879/493	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier No Occupation	24 years 17 years	Hokitika Hokitika	10 years 6 years	In the Church of England, Hokitika	79/389	Robert Nicol, the Father of Minor	30 December 1878	Revd W. Elton, CofE

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).