Intentions to Marry, 1882

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840394, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 646

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 December 1882 Registrar David Psames

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
920	06 October 1882	Honui Jainui Emma Piper	Hoani Tainui Emma Piper 💍 1882/3588	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman Domestic	18 years 17 years	Arahura Arahura	15 years 3 months	All Saints Church	82/3630	Thaia Jainui, father	06 October 1882	H.H.S. Hamilton
921	10 October 1882	Henry Holling Minnie Horning	Henry Holling Minnie Young 💍 1882/3587	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	31 years 16 years	Red Sacks, Grey Valley In Town, Grey Valley	1 day 1 day	All Saints Church, Hokitika	82/3629	the mother, Sinnett Olsson	13 October 1882	H.H.S. Hamilton
922	20 October 1882	James Shoop Hannah Frieletter	James Stoop Hannah Fineletter 💍 1882/3075	Bachelor Widow	Miner Domestic	34 years 42 years	Woodstock Woodstock	17 years 17 years	Residence of the Bridegroom, Woodstock	82/2999		20 October 1882	W.E. Gillane
923	15 November 1882	Patrick Keenan Mary Conway	Patrick Keenan Mary Conway 💍 1882/3072	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Barmaid	33 years 21 years	Rimu Stafford	6 months 1 year	Roman Catholic Chapel, Stafford	82/2996		15 November 1882	Father Walsh
924	02 December 1882	George Hills Dora Emma Messes, Huff	George Hills Flora Emma Alexandria Huff 💍 1882/3073	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	50 years 19 years	Rimu Rimu	5 months 5 months	Residence of George Hills	82/2997		23 December 1882	W.E. Gillane
925	13 December 1882	Herman August Backe Dora Elizabeth Bancke	Herman August Baucke Dora Elizabeth Baucke 💍 1882/3076	Bachelor Spinster	Miner None	30 years 21 years	Bouchers Gully Kanieri	6 months 5 weeks	Office of Registrar, Hokitika	82/3000		13 December 1882	David Plany
926	15 December 1882	Robert Ross Annie Mitchell	Robert Ross Annie Mitchell 💍 1882/3074	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic	25 years 20 years	Hokitika Hokitika	17 years 16 years	St Andrews Church, Kanieri	82/2998	Elizafave Mitchell, the mother	15 December 1882	H.S. Gillane

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).