Intentions to Marry, 1895 July-December

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840408, 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 718

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 31 December 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
20	16 December 1895	James Smith Annie A. M. Pagnell	James Smith Julia Kelly 💍 1895/1438 James Smith Edith Ann Read 💍 1896/157	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist Clerk	26 20	Hokitika Hokitika	20 years 15 years	Wesleyan Church, Hokitika	95/3510	16 December 1895	Rev. J. H. Morrow, Wesleyan Minister, Hokitika
21	18 November 1895	Henry Scammell Sarah Ann Cropper	Henry Hearn Sarah Ann Cropper 💍 1895/184	Bachelor Spinster	Roadman Clerk	26 24	Hokitika Hokitika	26 years 24 years	All Saints Church, Hokitika	95/3508	18 November 1895	Rev. S. Hamilton, Church of England, Hokitika
22	19 November 1895	Thomas Spoon Alice Oliver	Thomas Spuor Alice Oliver 💍 1895/2078	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	44 25	Hokitika Hokitika	3 years 25 years	Residence of W. A. Howell, Hokitika	95/3502	19 November 1895	W. A. Howell, Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika
26	18 November 1895	Charles Kormby Leah McMillian		Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Clerk	31 26	Hokitika Hokitika	5 years 16 years	Registrar's Office, Hokitika	95/3511	18 November 1895	W. A. Howell, Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika
27	5 December 1895	Eden Webster Rosalie Bridge	Peter Webster Rosalie Ridge 💍 1895/2079	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	25 21	Kanieri Forks Hokitika	5 years 9 months	Residence of W. Douglas, Hokitika	95/3503	5 December 1895	Rev. W. Douglas, Presbyterian Minister, Hokitika
28	11 December 1895	Charles McDougall Isabella McDonald	Charles McKenzie Isabella McDonald 💍 1895/2080	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Waitress	27 25	Hokitika Hokitika	4 years 20 years	Residence of W. Douglas, Hokitika	95/3504	11 December 1895	Rev. W. Douglas, Presbyterian Minister, Hokitika
29	21 December 1895	John Graham Mary Ann Scully	John Graham Mary Ann Kelly 💍 1896/3960	Widower Spinster	Farmer Domestic	61 35	Kokatahi Hokitika	26 years 20 years	St. Mary's Church, Hokitika	96/627	See Entry No. 2, January 1896	Rev. C. Martin, St. Mary's R.C., Hokitika
30	21 December 1895	James Fleming Anna Bassett		Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic	27 21	Stafford Hokitika	29 years 21 years	St. Mary's Church, Hokitika	96/628	21 December 1895	Rev. C. Martin, St. Mary's R.C., Hokitika
31	29 December 1895	William Fleming Sarah Ann Dale		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	30 24	Kanieri Kanieri	1 year 2 years	Residence of W. Dale, Kanieri	95/3501	29 December 1895	Rev. C. Martin, St. Mary's R.C., Hokitika
32	28 December 1895	Henry Hougham Marion S. Wells		Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic	29 18	Hokitika Kanieri	15 years 15 years	All Saints Church, Hokitika	96/629	28 December 1895	Rev. S. Hamilton, Church of England, 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 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).