Intentions to Marry, 1881

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840393, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

Page 631

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 September 1881

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
880	1 July 1881	Daniel bortoy Mary Ann Seaulan	Daniel Corboy Mary Ann Scanlan 💍 1881/1895	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver Barmaid	24 years 22 years	Hokitika Hokitika	1 Year 1 Year	Private Residence of [illegible] Johnstone Revell St Hokitika	81/1932		July 1 1881	Rev. Mr Douglas. Pres
881	14 July 1881	David Graham Jessie Henning	David Graham Jessie Fleming 💍 1881/1897	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic	22 years 17 years	Kokotahi Kokotahi	10 years 6 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Hokitika	81/1933	William Henning the father.	July 14 1881	David R. James. Reg
882	1 August 1881	Heinrich Wilhelm Kroner Marie Mathilde Louise Wankel		Bachelor Spinster	Baker No occupation	43 years 32 years	Kumara Hokitika	5 years 3 weeks	St Mary's Church Kumara	81/1934		August 1 1881	P. A. Martin. R.C.
883	4 August 1881	Timothy O'Connor Mary Neazor	Timothy O'Connor Mary Neazer 💍 1881/1910	Bachelor Spinster	Warder General Servant	21 years 21 years	Hokitika Hokitika	1 Year 1 Year	St Mary's Church Hokitika	81/1939		August 4 1881	P. A. Martin. R.C.
884	20 August 1881	Patrick Power Bridget Lynch	Patrick Power Bridget Lynch 💍 1881/1902	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 years 21 years	Hokitika Hokitika	14 days 12 months	St Mary's Church Hokitika	81/1938		August 20 1881	P. A. Martin R.C.
885	31 August 1881	Michael Downey Matheson Mary Baxter	Neal Downey Mathieson Mary Baxter 💍 1881/1898	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic	22 years 16 years	Hokitika Hokitika	2 years 13 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Hokitika	81/1934	Christina Baxter the mother.	August 31 1881	David R. James. Reg
886	5 September 1881	Samuel Henry Morris Leta Singer	Samuel Henry Morris Leba Singer 💍 1881/1899	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic	23 years 17 years	Hokitika Hokitika	1 year 13 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Hokitika	81/1935	Alexander Singer. the father.	September 5 1881	David R. James Reg
887	15 September 1881	James Owens Bridget Duncan	James Owens Bridget Duncan 💍 1881/1921	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	30 years 42 years	Hokitika Hokitika	14 days 12 years	St Mary's Church Hokitika	81/1940		September 15 1881	P. A. Martin. R.C.

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).