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 207

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1859

No	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
1	15 October 1859	John Treasurer Sarah Lampert	John Treasurer Sarah Lampert 💍 1859/1664	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	23 27	West side of the Upper Harbour, Dunedin East side of the Upper Harbour, Dunedin	18 months 6 months	At the house of Frank Pellet, East Taieri			Oct 15	Rev. William Johnston
2	19 October 1859	Thomas Frederick Moore Elizabeth Maria Brooke	Thomas Frederick Moore Elizabeth Maria Brook 💍 1859/1658	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	24 19	Dunedin North East Valley	6 months 16 years	Registrar's Office, Dunedin	3	No person legally entitled to give consent	Nov 3	John Gillies Registrar
3	19 October 1859	James Albert Beck Jane Hall Murray	James Albert Beck Jane Hall Murray 💍 1859/1156	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 25	Walker Street, Dunedin Walker Street, Dunedin	12 years 3 weeks	Episcopal Church, Dunedin			Nov 3	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
4	21 November 1859	Robert Burns Elizabeth Campbell Douglas	Robert Burns Elizabeth Campbell Douglas 💍 1859/1518	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	16 months 14 months	At the residence of Mrs. Caroline Douglas, Pelichet Bay, Dunedin			Dec 5	The Rev. Thomas Burns
5	24 November 1859	Alfred Frederick Blatch Bethia Thomson Lockhart	Alfred Frederick Blatch Bethia Thomson Lockhart 💍 1859/1676	Bachelor Spinster	Agriculturist	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 6 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	3		Nov 24	Edward G. Edwards
6	26 November 1859	Alexander Miller Agnes Stevenson	Alexander White Agnes Stevenson 💍 1859/1661	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	27 25	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 8 days	Registrar's Office, Dunedin	3		Nov 26	John Gillies Registrar
7	29 November 1859	William Merchant Gale Maria Millichamp	William Marchant Gale Maria Millichamp 💍 1859/1244	Widower Spinster		33 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	3		Nov 29	Edward G. Edwards
8	6 December 1859	Thomas Beckett Mary Ann Nichols	Thomas Beckett Mary Ann Nichols 💍 1859/1673	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	33 21	Dunedin North East Valley	4 days 18 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	3		Dec 6	Edward G. Edwards
9	14 December 1859	David John Napier Mary Ann Hannah Cargill	David John Napier Mary Anne Hannah Cargill 💍 1859/1670	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	30 19	Dunedin Dunedin	11 years 3 years	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	3	Elizabeth Brown Cargill, Mother	Dec 19	Edward G. Edwards
10	19 December 1859	William Winton Robina McIntosh	Wm Winton Robina McIntosh 💍 1859/1667	Widower Spinster	Settler	49 29	Portobello Portobello	11 years 4 years	At the residence of William Winton, Settler, Portobello			Dec 19	William Johnston
11	20 December 1859	John McAra Margaret Dow	John McAra Margaret Dow 💍 1860/3217	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason	20 20	Dunedin Caversham near Dunedin	3 months 3 months	In James Cherry's house, Dunedin				Not issued

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).