Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 679

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 1885

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
988	1 April 1885	John Hubener Elizabeth Burks	John Mulvany Elizabeth Burns 💍 1885/546 John Palmer Elizabeth Hill 💍 1885/687 John McNoe Elizabeth Murray 💍 1886/825 John Kerr Elizabeth Cameron 💍 1886/1008 John Boys Elizabeth Curry 💍 1885/3094	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	44 21	Hokitika Hokitika	8 years 17 years	Roman Catholic Chapel at Kumara	85/1408		14 March 1885	Patrick Meenan R.C. Priest
989	10 April 1885	Wm Glashern Mary Cloher	William Glasheen Mary Cloher 💍 1885/1424	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic	44 33	Hokitika Hokitika	1 year 1 year	Roman Catholic Chapel Hokitika	85/1409		10 April 1885	Father Aime Martin R.C. Priest
990	16 April 1885	Frank Alfred Michel Harriet Granjud	Frank Alfred Michel Harriet Granjux 💍 1885/1426	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser Dressmaker	24 20	Hokitika Hokitika	19 years 4 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages at Hokitika	85/1411	John Louis Granjud the father	16 April 1885	Sydney James Day Registrar
991	29 April 1885	Robert Williams Mary Dreier	Robert Williams Mary Dreier 💍 1885/1427	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	43 19	Rimu Rimu	3 years 3 years	Office of Registrar of Marriages at Hokitika	85/1412	Hinrich Dreier the father	29 April 1885	Sydney James Day Registrar
992	18 May 1885	Robert Cross Bessie Maud Peter	Robert Cross Bessie Maud Peter 💍 1885/1428	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist & Druggist Domestic	47 24	Hokitika Hokitika	10 years 18 years	Church of England Hokitika	85/1413		18 May 1885	M. J. Gould of Church of England
993	15 June 1885	Andrew Johnson Magdalena Rodinagh	Andrew Johnson Magdalene Kodinagh 💍 1885/1425	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	30 22	Hokitika Hokitika	1½ years 10 months	Roman Catholic Chapel Hokitika	85/1410		15 June 1885	P. A. Martin R.C. Priest
994	20 June 1885	William Charles Augustus Braddon Mary Olive Taylor	William Charles Augustus Braddon Mary Olive Taylor 💍 1885/1429	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer Domestic	23 21	Hokitika Kanieri	19 months 5½ years	All Saints Church Kanieri	85/1414	*6 months under 21. no one in Colony authorised to give consent	20 June 1885	M. J. Gould of Church of England
995	29 June 1885	William Howe Ellen Sherer	William Howe Ellen Ahern 💍 1885/2285	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	26 21	Hokitika Hokitika	6 years over 3 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Hokitika	85/1415		29 June 1885	Sydney James Day Registrar

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).