Intentions to Marry, 1919 Kaikoura to Christchurch

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840485, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

1919 is bound in seven volumes (a to g) with continuous page numbers. Each volume contains a different set of districts, going from north to south.

1919e contains pages 2001-2520, covering districts from Kaikoura to Christchurch

Page 2233

District of Hokitika Quarter ending 30 June 1919 Registrar A. H. Mail

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

17 April 1919

Frederick Henry Bruhn
Divina Elsie Ross

Frederick Henry Bruhn
Divina Elsie Ross
💍 1919/3812

Widower
Spinster

Engine Driver
Domestic Duties

34
32

Westport
Hokitika

2 days
4 months

All Saints Anglican Church, Hokitika

3798

17 April 1919

Rev. J. E. Holloway

No	6
Date of Notice	17 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Frederick Henry Bruhn	Divina Elsie Ross
	💍 1919/3812
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engine Driver	Domestic Duties
Age	34	32
Dwelling Place	Westport	Hokitika
Length of Residence	2 days	4 months
Marriage Place	All Saints Anglican Church, Hokitika
Folio	3798
Consent
Date of Certificate	17 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. J. E. Holloway

19 April 1919

Joseph Campbell
Evelyn Corsan

Joseph Campbell
Evelyn Corsan
💍 1919/3813

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

49
21

Hokitika
Hokitika

10 years
21 years

Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika

3799

19 April 1919

Registrar of Marriages

No	7
Date of Notice	19 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Campbell	Evelyn Corsan
	💍 1919/3813
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	49	21
Dwelling Place	Hokitika	Hokitika
Length of Residence	10 years	21 years
Marriage Place	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Hokitika
Folio	3799
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages

22 April 1919

Earl Francis Patrick Griffen
Mary Ann Anderson Levy

Earl Francis Patrick Griffin
Levy Mary Ann Anderson
💍 1919/3814

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner
Domestic Duties

21
21

Hokitika
Hokitika

three days
ten years

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika

3800

22 April 1919

Rev. John D. Clancy

No	8
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Earl Francis Patrick Griffen	Mary Ann Anderson Levy
BDM Match (75%)	Earl Francis Patrick Griffin	Levy Mary Ann Anderson
	💍 1919/3814
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner	Domestic Duties
Age	21	21
Dwelling Place	Hokitika	Hokitika
Length of Residence	three days	ten years
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika
Folio	3800
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John D. Clancy

22 April 1919

Peter Frederick Joseph Sellers
Blanche Hayes Eva

Peter Frederick Joseph Sellers
Eva Blanche Hayes
💍 1919/3872

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper's assistant
Saleswoman

35
35

Hokitika
Hokitika

three days
sixteen months

St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika

3801

22 April 1919

Rev. John D. Clancy

No	9
Date of Notice	22 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Frederick Joseph Sellers	Blanche Hayes Eva
BDM Match (76%)	Peter Frederick Joseph Sellers	Eva Blanche Hayes
	💍 1919/3872
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper's assistant	Saleswoman
Age	35	35
Dwelling Place	Hokitika	Hokitika
Length of Residence	three days	sixteen months
Marriage Place	St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika
Folio	3801
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John D. Clancy

28 April 1919

Edward Henry McGuigan
Agnes Mary Lakin

Edward Henry McGuigan
Agnes Mary Lakin
💍 1919/3883

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet maker
Dressmaker

22
23

Hokitika
Hokitika

22 years
22 years

Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika

3802

28 April 1919

Rev. John D. Clancy

No	10
Date of Notice	28 April 1919
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Edward Henry McGuigan	Agnes Mary Lakin
	💍 1919/3883
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet maker	Dressmaker
Age	22	23
Dwelling Place	Hokitika	Hokitika
Length of Residence	22 years	22 years
Marriage Place	Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church, Hokitika
Folio	3802
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 April 1919
Officiating Minister	Rev. John D. Clancy

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 1908. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).