Intentions to Marry, 1855

Reference: Alexander Turnbull Library fMS-194

This document only includes a partial set of Intention to Marry records for 1855, relating to the Auckland and Otago districts. Unlike the registers at Archives NZ, this document does not consist of the original returns sent to the Registrar, but a poor quality photocopy of the original returns.

Imaged by Luke at the Alexander Turnbull Library in December 2024.

Page 23

District of Otago Quarter ending 31 March 1855

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
1	2 January 1855	James McNeil Mary Chalmers	James McNeil Mary Chalmers 💍 1855/1887	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 19	Clintha Clintha	7 years 1 year	the house of Antha Ferry	2 January 1855	The Rev William Bannerman
2	9 January 1855	William Nimmo Agnes Fowler	William McMeikan Agnes Fowler 💍 1855/1899	Widower Spinster	Labourer	30 30	Stirling Do	3 years 3 years	the house of Agnes Fowler	9 January 1855	The Rev William Burns
3	6 January 1855	John Lemon Mary Grima Sumpter	John Lemon Mary Emma Sumpster 💍 1855/1853	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	26 23	Goodwood Omedim	23 years 6 years	the home of Dr Williams at Caversham	6 January 1855	The Rev Thomas Burns
4	13 January 1855	Adam Oliver James Allan	Adam Oliver Agnes Allan 💍 1855/1814	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 21	Tokomairiro East Taieri	2 years 2 years	the home of John Allan	13 January 1855	The Rev William Mills
5	29 January 1855	Thomas Reid Eliza Reid	Thomas Reid Eliza Reid 💍 1855/1884	Widower Widow	Sawyer	35 31	Tokomairiro Do	3 years 1 year	the house of Eliza Reid at Taieri	21 January 1855	The Rev Robert Fenton
6	21 January 1855	Henry Mcleod Margaret Marshall	Henry McLean Margaret Marshall 💍 1855/1908	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 19	Irontake Upper Kaitangata	19 years 1 year	the house of Thomas Marshall at Taieri	13 January 1855	The Rev William Mills
7	26 January 1855	Manuel Lima Catherine Davidson	Manuel Luna Catherine Davidson 💍 1855/1902	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	40 37	Otago Do	37 years 1 year	the home of Manuel Lima	8 February 1855	The Rev Thomas Burns
8	9 March 1855	Donald Sutherland Jane Reid	Donald Sutherland Jane Reid 💍 1855/1835	Bachelor Spinster	Druggist	26 22	Tokomairiro Do	9 years 9 years	the house of Charles Robertson at Kaitangata	9 March 1855	The Rev Thomas Burns
9	9 March 1855	John Morning Helen Maxwell	John Manning Helen Maxwell 💍 1855/1847	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	36 24	Sawyer Do	2 years 2 years	the dwelling house of Edward Martin	6 April 1855	The Rev William Burns
10	22 March 1855	John Barr Christie Gordon	John Barr Christian Gordon 💍 1855/1911	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	21 22	Otago Do	22 years 2 years	the house of John Barr	8 April 1855	The Rev Thomas Burns

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).