Intentions to Marry, 1859

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840371, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 12 2024

Page 201

District of Otago Quarter ending 30 June 1859

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
25	25 March 1859	John Brown Martha Brown	John Brown Martha Brown 💍 1859/1579	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	36 17	Portobello do	3 months 2 years	At the residence of Mr Rochford, Portobello	Barbara Brown, mother of the minor		Rev. William Johnston Port Chalmers
26	29 March 1859	Alexander Menzies Elizabeth White	Alexander Munson Elizabeth White 💍 1859/1576	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	29 31	Sawyers Bay Port Chalmers	3 years	At the residence of Capt Thomson		12 April 1859	Rev. John [UNCLEAR]
27	30 March 1859	Richard Craigie Mary Marwick	Richard Craigie Mary Marwick 💍 1859/1530	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	29 23	Invercargill do	10 years 1 year	At the residence of Capt Thomson		March 30	Rev. John [UNCLEAR]
28	12 April 1859	Andrew Thompson Mary Ann Thomson	Andrew Thompson Mary Ann Tandy 💍 1859/1464	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	35 20	Tokomairiro do	10 years 20 years	At the residence of the bride party	None in the Colony capable	April 12	Rev. Wm Bannerman Clutha
29	19 April 1859	William Luke Leggatt Eliza Redmayne	William Lube Leggatt Eliza Redmayne 💍 1859/1585	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 21	Dunedin do	4 years 2 years	At the Episcopal Church Dunedin		April 19	Rev. Arthur [UNCLEAR] [UNCLEAR] Dunedin
30	25 April 1859	John Paterson Martha Wood	John Paterson Martha Wood 💍 1859/1582	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 26	do do	Days 1 year	do		25	do
31		William Rose Elizabeth Knott	William Rose Elizabeth Knott 💍 1859/1623	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	22 20	do do	3 1/2 years 1 year	do	Thomas Knott Father of the minor	26	do
32	6 May 1859	John McNiel Margaret Ayson	John McNeil Margaret Ayson 💍 1859/1573	Bachelor Spinster	[UNCLEAR]	24 23	Clutha do	9 years 6 years	At the residence of Peter Ayson		May 6	Rev. Wm Bannerman Clutha
33	9 May 1859	Andrew [UNCLEAR] Margaret Russell	Andrew Hymes Margaret Russell 💍 1859/1509	Widower Spinster	Shepherd	27 25	Waiotaki do		The Episcopal Church, East Taieri			Rev. William Will East Taieri
34	17 May 1859	George Grey Elizabeth Patchell	George Grey Elizabeth Petchell 💍 1859/1461	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 24	North Molyneux Inch Clutha	10 years 5 years	At the residence of John Patchell			Rev. Wm Bannerman Clutha
35	23 May 1859	William Milne Margaret Shand	William Milne Margaret Shand 💍 1859/1506	Bachelor Spinster	Apprentice	40 30	East Taieri do	3 months 18 months	At the Cottage of George Shand		June 6	Rev. William Will East Taieri
36	23 May 1859	Peter Leech Elizabeth Adam	Peter Leitch Elizabeth Adam 💍 1859/1337	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	22 22	Moraki District Dunedin	1 year 1 year	At the residence of William Adam		11	Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin
37	30 May 1859	Henry O'Connor Jane Watkins Healey	Henry Honnor Jane Watkins Healey 💍 1859/1620	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	16 months 3 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		13 June 1859	Rev. Edward George Edmonds Dunedin

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).