Intentions to Marry, 1893

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840405, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole and Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, June 6 2025.

A few pages are missing due to focus issues.

Page 227

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1889

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
1	1 January 1889	Alexander Scott Turnbull Flora Jamieson Jacks	Alexander Scott Malcolm Flora Jamieson Jack 💍 1893/1204	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher Teacher	25 24	Hokitika Hokitika	6 Days 20 years	Residence of Mr Jacks, Hokitika	93/517		4 January 1889	Revd. Wm. Douglas, M.A., Presbyterian Minister
2	5 January 1889	Frank Radomski Mary Simges	Frank Radomski Mary Singer 💍 1893/1185	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	28 18	Sparriess Sparriess	4 years 16 months	Hokitika	93/514	John Simger, father	5 January 1889	Revd. A. Martin, R.C. Priest, Hokitika
3	9 January 1889	Arthur Phillips Margaret Evans	Arthur Clifton Margaret Marr 💍 1893/1205	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Miner	34 20	Sparriess Sparriess	10 months 13 months	Residence of Mr Evans, Sparriess	93/518		9 January 1889	Revd. Wm. Douglas, M.A., Presbyterian Minister
4	26 January 1889	Edward Philip Gallop Isabella Ellen Howard	Edward Phillip Gallop Isabella Ellen Howard 💍 1893/327	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	30 19	Woodstock Woodstock	4 months 15 months	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	93/924	Frederick Howard, father	26 January 1889	Registrar, Hokitika
5	4 February 1889	George James Boddy Margaret Theresa Ryan	George James Boddy Margaret Lynch 💍 1893/1196	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Labourer	20 20	Hokitika St. Mary's R.C. Presbytery, Hokitika	20 years 15 months	St. Mary's R.C. Presbytery, Hokitika	93/575		4 February 1889	Revd. S.M. Pirnaty, R.C. Priest, Hokitika
6	6 February 1889	Theophilus Arthur Dodds Margaret Winifred Ephraims	Theophilus La Mothe Ralfe Margaret Winifred Upham 💍 1893/1203	Bachelor Spinster	Undertaker Undertaker	24 24	Hokitika Hokitika	24 months 20 months	St. Mary's R.C. Presbytery, Hokitika	93/576		6 February 1889	Revd. S.M. Pirnaty, R.C. Priest, Hokitika
7	16 February 1889	Edward James Lloyd Annie Priscilla Wells	Edward James Lloyd Throckmorton Annie Pricella Wells 💍 1893/1249	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Grocer	31 24	Hokitika Sparriess	24 months 24 months	All Saints, Hokitika	93/573		16 February 1889	Revd. J. Blackburn, All Saints, Hokitika

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).