1857 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840369, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 13 2024

Page 132

District of Otago Quarter ending 31 March 1857

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

5 January 1857

Gilbert Buchannan
Elizabeth Dalzell

Gilbert Buchanan
Elizabeth Dalziel
💍 1857/1918

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

28
19

East Taieri
Halfway Bush

9 years
9 years

Within the house of Andrew Dalzell Half-way-Bush

19 January 1857

Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

No	1
Date of Notice	5 January 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Gilbert Buchannan	Elizabeth Dalzell
BDM Match (91%)	Gilbert Buchanan	Elizabeth Dalziel
	💍 1857/1918
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	28	19
Dwelling Place	East Taieri	Halfway Bush
Length of Residence	9 years	9 years
Marriage Place	Within the house of Andrew Dalzell Half-way-Bush
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

16 January 1857

Peter Crawford
Mary Ann Dickson

Peter Crawford
Mary Ann Dixon
💍 1857/1921

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

24
17

Green Island
Taieri

8 years
9 months

Within the house of George Crawford Dunedin

6 February 1857

Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

No	2
Date of Notice	16 January 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Crawford	Mary Ann Dickson
BDM Match (91%)	Peter Crawford	Mary Ann Dixon
	💍 1857/1921
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	24	17
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Taieri
Length of Residence	8 years	9 months
Marriage Place	Within the house of George Crawford Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

17 January 1857

Lewis Frederick Clapp
Mary Mack

Lewis Frederick Clapp
Mary Mack
💍 1857/1924

Bachelor
Spinster

Confectioner

25
20

Halfway Bush
Halfway Bush

3 months

Within the house of Thomas Oliver Halfway Bush

4 February 1857

Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

No	3
Date of Notice	17 January 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Lewis Frederick Clapp	Mary Mack
	💍 1857/1924
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Confectioner
Age	25	20
Dwelling Place	Halfway Bush	Halfway Bush
Length of Residence	3 months
Marriage Place	Within the house of Thomas Oliver Halfway Bush
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	4 February 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

26 January 1857

Peter Grant
Elizabeth Pritcheons

Peter Grant
Elizabeth Ritchengs
💍 1857/1805

Bachelor
Spinster

Agriculturalist

30
28

West Taieri
Dunedin

3 years
3 years

At the office of the Registrar Dunedin

26 January 1857

Registrar Otago

No	4
Date of Notice	26 January 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Grant	Elizabeth Pritcheons
BDM Match (90%)	Peter Grant	Elizabeth Ritchengs
	💍 1857/1805
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Agriculturalist
Age	30	28
Dwelling Place	West Taieri	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 years	3 years
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	26 January 1857
Officiating Minister	Registrar Otago

7 February 1857

Thomas Jones
Margaret Sheriff

Thomas Jones
Margaret Sherriff
💍 1857/1927

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

21
18

Waikouaiti
Wakari

16 years
7 years

Within the house of William Sheriff Wakari

6 February 1857

Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

No	5
Date of Notice	7 February 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Jones	Margaret Sheriff
BDM Match (97%)	Thomas Jones	Margaret Sherriff
	💍 1857/1927
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	21	18
Dwelling Place	Waikouaiti	Wakari
Length of Residence	16 years	7 years
Marriage Place	Within the house of William Sheriff Wakari
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	6 February 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin

9 February 1857

Hugh Ward
Jane McFea

Hugh Ward
Jane McFea
💍 1857/1808

Widower
Spinster

Farmer

35
27

New River
Dunedin

6 months
5 months

At the office of the Registrar Dunedin

9 February 1857

Registrar Otago

No	6
Date of Notice	9 February 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Ward	Jane McFea
	💍 1857/1808
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	35	27
Dwelling Place	New River	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 months	5 months
Marriage Place	At the office of the Registrar Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 February 1857
Officiating Minister	Registrar Otago

28 February 1857

William Walden
Jane Peach Hooper

William Welden
Jane Peach Hooper
💍 1857/1863

Bachelor
Spinster

Butcher

30
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 weeks
7 days

Within the Episcopal Church Dunedin

28 February 1857

Rev. John Albert Fenton

No	7
Date of Notice	28 February 1857
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Walden	Jane Peach Hooper
BDM Match (96%)	William Welden	Jane Peach Hooper
	💍 1857/1863
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	30	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 weeks	7 days
Marriage Place	Within the Episcopal Church Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1857
Officiating Minister	Rev. John Albert Fenton

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 1903. 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).