Intentions to Marry, 1895 January-June

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840407, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, June 11 2025.

1895 is bound in two volumes, January-June and July-December.

Page 263

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 March 1895

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	9 January 1895	George William Thorpe Lillian Beatrice Mann	George William Thorpe Lillian Ellen Leathem 💍 1895/2928	Bachelor Spinster	Draizer Nil	27 23	Hokitika Hokitika	7 months 7 months	Wesleyan Church, Hokitika	95/580	9 January 1895	Rev. S. H. Burrows, Wesleyan Minister, Hokitika
2	9 January 1895	James Hogg Theresa Humphrey	James Rugg Theresa Murphy 💍 1895/2943	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Nil	27 19	Kumara Stratford	15 years 10 years	Residence of J. Humphrey, Stratford	95/582	9 January 1895	Rev. D. J. O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic Priest, Stratford
3	21 January 1895	George Davidson Annie Postman	George Darbyson Annie Bootsma 💍 1895/3815	Widower Widow	Miner Nil	61 64	Callaghans Callaghans	18 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	95/583	21 January 1895	Rev. D. J. O'Sullivan, Roman Catholic Priest, Goldsborough
4	21 January 1895	Charles Dambroge Fedora de Carz		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	28 24	Goldsborough Callaghans	10 years 4 years	Catholic Church, Goldsborough	95/585	21 January 1895	Rev. Thomas Simpson, Roman Catholic Priest, Goldsborough
5	18 February 1895	Patrick Begman Catherine Taylor	Patrick Dignan Catherine Taylor 💍 1895/2896	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Nil	35 24	Hokitika Hokitika	7 years 7 years	St Mary's Church, Hokitika	95/579	18 February 1895	Rev. E. A. Martin, Roman Catholic Priest, Hokitika
6	23 March 1895	Francis Hall Rose Annie Cropp	Frank Wall Rose Annie Cropp 💍 1895/416	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	26 25	Reefton Reefton	10 years 10 years	Residence of Rose Annie Cropp, Reefton	95/1599	23 March 1895	Rev. F. S. Bischoff, Church of England, Reefton
7	20 March 1895	William Stephenson Jane Macdonald	William Stephenson Jessie McDonald 💍 1895/2939	Widower Spinster	Storeman Nil	26 22	Christchurch Road Christchurch Road	3 years 10 years	Residence of Jane Macdonald, Christchurch Road	95/581	20 March 1895	Rev. W. Douglas, Presbyterian Minister, Hokitika
8	25 March 1895	William Jones Mary Lucy Simpson	William Jones Eliza Mary Simpson 💍 1895/2942 William Henry Miller Mary Simpson 💍 1895/1707	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Nil	24 20	Hokitika Hokitika	16 years 10 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	95/583	25 March 1895	E. B. Cresswell, Registrar, 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).