Intentions to Marry, 1883

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840395, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

Page 628

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 September 1883

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
939	5 July 1883	Isaac Brier Mary Grierson	Isaac Briers Mary Grierson 💍 1883/2154	Widower Widow	Miner Nurse	58 years 57 years	Woodstock Kanieri	12 years 2 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriage	83/12123		5 July 1883	David T. James
940	24 July 1883	John William Lyes Ann Collier	John William Lyes Ann Collier 💍 1883/2136	Bachelor Widow	Miner None	22 years 39 years	Kanieri Kanieri	4 years 17 years	Residence of Ann Collier, Kanieri	83/12129		24 July 1883	Mr. E. Gillam
941	16 August 1883	Charles Cunningham Alice Lavinia Jones	Charles Cunningham Alice Lavinia Jones 💍 1883/2131	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 years 21 years	Arahura Arahura	1 year 3 years	Office of the Registrar	83/12124		16 August 1883	David T. James
942	21 August 1883	John Lloyd Throckmorton Emma Wilson	John Lloyd Throckmorton Emma Wilson 💍 1883/2135	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	25 years 21 years	Hokitika Hokitika	16 years 10 years	All Saints Church, Hokitika	83/12128		21 August 1883	Mr. E. Gillam
943	24 August 1883	John Duncraft Ada Fane	John Duncraft Ada Fane 💍 1883/2132	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	25 years 19 years	Hokitika Hokitika	7 days 18 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/12125	Reginald Fane, the father	24 August 1883	David T. James
944	30 August 1883	Frank Buckingham Nella Maria Peterson	Frank Buckingham Metta Maria Petersen 💍 1883/2133	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	28 years 20 years	Hokitika Hokitika	5 days 5 days	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/12126		30 August 1883	David T. James
945	14 September 1883	Joseph Kennedy Esther Foy	Joseph Kennedy Esther Foy 💍 1883/2134	Widower Widow	Storekeeper Domestic	48 years 48 years	Kanieri Kanieri	17 years 10 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	83/12127		14 September 1883	David T. James
946	22 September 1883	Thomas Done Mary Eliza Ellis	Thomas Dove Mary Eliza Ellis 💍 1883/2153	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Domestic	38 years 19 years	Hokitika Arahura	3 days 12 years	Residence of John Ellis, Arahura	83/12122	John Ellis, her father	22 September 1883	Rev. W. Holland
947	26 September 1883	Thomas Green Jane O'Connor	Thomas Green Jane OConnor 💍 1883/2137	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Barmaid	38 years 28 years	Hokitika Hokitika	5 years 3 weeks	Vestry of St. Mary's Church, Hokitika	83/12130		26 September 1883	P. A. McArtney

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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).