Intentions to Marry, 1886

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840398, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 14 2025

Page 605

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 1886

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
1014	10 April 1886	Isaac Brown Ellen Romey	Isaac Brown Ellen Rooney 💍 1886/1476	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic	25 21	Hokitika Hokitika	13 months 1 year	All Saints Church Hokitika	86/1384		10 April 1886	H. G. Goned
1015	13 April 1886	Joseph Ford Wilson Margaret Elizabeth Williams	Joseph Foord Wilson Margaret Elizabeth Williams 💍 1886/1498 John Osborne Margaret Elizabeth Williams 💍 1886/1530	Bachelor Spinster	Dental Student None	22 22	Hokitika Hokitika	3 weeks 4 days	Registrar's Office Hokitika	86/1382		17 April 1886	J. Shrimptow
1016	16 April 1886	Thomas Barty Hedrick Sophia Malom	Thomas Barty Hedrick Sophia Malam 💍 1886/1496	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Dressmaker	45 35	Kokatahi Kokatahi	16 years 3 years	Presbyterian Church Hokitika	86/1380		16 April 1886	Wm Douglas
1017	10 May 1886	Hugh Owens Mary Eastwood	Hugh Owens Mary Eastwood 💍 1886/1494	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	31 24	Hokitika Hokitika	6 years 8 years	Roman Catholic Church Hokitika	86/1378		10 May 1886	Rev. Father Martin
1018	31 May 1886	Ezra Brook Dixon Helen Robinson	Ezra Brook Dixon Helen Robinson 💍 1886/1477 William Thomas James Ford Helen Robinson 💍 1886/1603	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster None	48 36	Hokitika Hokitika	10 years 4 days	All Saints Church Hokitika	86/1385		3 June 1886	H. G. Goned
1019	3 June 1886	John Wm D. Foley Laura Sarah Bloom	John William Driscoll Foley Laura Sarah Bloom 💍 1886/1499	Bachelor Spinster	Actor Pianist	25 24	Hokitika Hokitika	2 months 2 months	Registrar's Office Hokitika	86/1383		3 June 1886	J. Shrimptow
1020	7 June 1886	George Pamment Barbara Murdoch	George Pamment Barbara Murdoch 💍 1886/1497	Bachelor Spinster	Printer Domestic	21 19	Hokitika Hokitika	21 years 1 year	Presbyterian Church Hokitika	86/1381	J. Murdock, The Father	7 June 1886	Wm Douglas
1021	12 June 1886	Thomas Langdown Elizabeth Duff	Thomas Langdown Elizabeth Duff 💍 1886/1495	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor Domestic	53 43	Hokitika Hokitika	18 years 18 years	Private residence of Rev. Father Martin	86/1379		12 June 1886	Rev. Father Martin

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).