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 633

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 December 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
890	October 1881	Sanuarethury Ball clarke Elleve Elizabeth Beach	Samuel Henry Dall Clarke Ellen Elizabeth Breach 💍 1881/2692	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller Domestic	24 26	Hokitika ditto	3 months years	Allsaints Schoolroom	81/2779		October 1.1881	H.H.S.Manieton
891	October 1881	Michael Dwan Anne Kiriwaw	Michael Dwan Anne Kirwan 💍 1881/2702	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer General Servant	38 28	Hokitika ditto	3 months 6 years	St Mary's Church	81/2782		October 3.1881	P. A. Martin
892	October 1881	buthert friest Gay Hetcher		Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Domestic	25 21	Hokilika bitto	15 years 13 years	All Saint' School	81/2780		October 15.1881	H.H.S. Hamiltow
893	October 1881	Edward Dowall Anu me ramara		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	38 21	Woodstock Hokitike	4 years 2 years	St Mary's Church	81/2783		October 19.1881	P. A. Martin.
894	October 1881	bonrad Harner Anne gostrich	Conrad Warner Anne Gostrich 💍 1881/2720	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	38 27	Taipo & Hokitika Taipo	2 years 8 months	St Mary's Church	81/2784		October 20.1881	P. A. Martin
895	October 1881	Henry Hyams Sarah Annie Benjamin	Henry Hyams Sarah Anne Benjamin 💍 1881/2690	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Dressmaker	42 25	Hokitika ditto	16 years 11 years	private residence of Mr Benjamin	81/2777		October 22.1881	alexcauder Singer
896	October 1881	Robert mark Brown Isabella Boggis	Robert Mark Brown Isabella Boggis 💍 1881/2722	Bachelor Spinster	Miner No occupation	39 21	Bluespur Humphreys Gully	16 years 10 years	office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika	81/2486		October 29.1881	The Registrar at Hokitika
897	November 1881	arthur Baddeley Rose mary Hollings	Arthur Baddeley Rose Mary Hollings 💍 1881/2760	Bachelor Spinster	Banker	31 21	Oamaru Hokitika	3 months 6 months	office of the Registrar, Christchurch	81/2856		November 10.1881	The Registrar at Christchurch
898	November 1881	Joseph churches Emma Doratta mary Rofabe	Joseph Churches Emma Doretta Mary Kofahl 💍 1881/2694	Widower [illegible]	Mechanic House Keeper	40 22	Hokitika Hokitira	15 years 4 years	All Saints Schoolroom	81/2781		November 10.1881	H.H.S. Hamilton
899	November 1881	William Henry Blazs Margaret Hyndman	William Henry Breeze Margaret Hyndman 💍 1881/2723	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic	24 18	Hokitika ditto	10 years 6 years	office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika	81/2785		November 28.1881	The Registrar at Hokitika
900	December 1881	Thomas Killy Bridger oatridge	Thomas Kiely Bridget Oatridge 💍 1881/2721	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domeshe	39 35	Hokitika bitto	14 years 10 years	at the residence Beacher	81/2785		December 19.1881	P. A. Martin
901	December 1881	Alfred Good Jane Kirk	Alfred Good Jane Kirk 💍 1882/626	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer Domestic	20 18	Hokitika ditto	14 years 5 years	Residence of Mr Kirk. Hokitika	81/456	Henryfood. [illegible]	December 31. 1881	William Douglas.

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).