Intentions to Marry, 1858

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840370, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 168

District of Otago Quarter ending 30 June 1858

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
7	1 April 1858	John Borton Mary Eliza Every	John Borton Mary Eliza Every 💍 1858/1453	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	30 20	Maerewhenua Andersons Bay	9 years 1 Year	At the residence of Simon Hodinel	1858 April 29	Rev. John Albert Fenton
8	8 April 1858	William Henry Valpy Penelope Caroline Every	William Henry Valpy Penelope Caroline Every 💍 1858/1456	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	26 17	The Forbury Andersons Bay	9 years 1 year	do	th	do
9	10 April 1858	John Graham Margaret Majoribanks	John Graham Margaret Marchbank 💍 1858/1512	Bachelor Spinster	Postman	27 22	Dunedin do	6 years 1 year	At the residence of [UNCLEAR]	29th	Rev. Thomas Brown
10	17 April 1858	Francis Patrick Glynn Ellen Harris Elston	Francis Patrick Flynn Ellen Harris Elston 💍 1858/1506	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	39 21	Dunedin do	2 years 4 Months	At the residence of Mrs Limo	27th	do
11	28 April 1858	Robert Frew Margaret McLean	Robert Frew Margaret McLean 💍 1858/1509	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	24 22	Half Way Bush do	5 1/2 years 10 years	At the residence of Thomas Marsh	May 19th	do
12	4 May 1858	Francis Edmond Overton Agnes Duckworth	Francis Edmund Ovenden Agnes Duckworth 💍 1858/1459	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 19	Invercargill Andersons Bay	16 months 9 years	At the residence of John Kelly	May 4th	Rev. John Albert Fenton
13	10 May 1858	Bayley Pike Inlet Anna Owen	Baily Pike Juliet Anna Owen Mackworth 💍 1858/1411	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	27 23	Dunedin The Forbury	4 months 6 years	At the residence of Peter Valpy	May 10th	do
14	22 May 1858	Archibald Barr Sarah Hepburn	Archibald Barr Sarah Hepburn 💍 1858/1518	Widower Spinster	Clerk of Customs	30 21	Dunedin Half-way Bush	8 years 7 years	At the residence of George Hepburn	June 9	Rev. Thomas Brown
15	26 May 1858	Hugh Calder Marion Young Smith	Hugh Calder Marion Young Smith 💍 1858/1515	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	29 19	Caversham Dunedin	9 years 2 years	At the residence of Archibald Barr	June 9th	do
16	5 June 1858	Edward Boyd Jane Haggart	Edward Boyd Jane Hagart 💍 1858/1393	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 18	Waihola Dunedin	4 months 4 months	At the residence of James Fulton	June 7th	Rev. William Gill

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).