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 198

District of Otago Quarter ending 31 of March 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
11	3 February 1859	James Silson Janet Ross	James Wilson Janet Ross 💍 1859/1551	Widower Spinster	Settler	Full age	New River do	3 years 1 year	At the residence of William Fraser		3 February 1859	Rev William Bannerman
12	5	James Haggom Christina Anthen	James Haggen Christina Aitken 💍 1859/1343	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 years 26	East Taieri Dunedin	2 years 9 months	At the residence of Thomas Smellie		23	Rev Thomas Burns
13	11	James Ryan Gerima Ann Road	James Ryan Serina Ann Hood 💍 1859/1697	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	25 17	Otepopo do	8 years 14 years	At the residence of James Road	James Road, father of the minor	11	Rev. John Albert Fenton
14	15	Mathew Robertson Elizabeth Anderson	Matthew Robertson Millar Elisabeth Anderson 💍 1859/1643	Widower Spinster	Station Manager	29 17	Waiotahi Blueskin	10 months 10 years	At the residence of John Anderson	John Anderson, father of the minor	15	Rev. William Johnston
15	19	Robert Gibson Margaret Petrie	Robert Gibson Margaret Petrie 💍 1859/1494	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 23	North Taieri do	10 years 3 years	At the residence of William Gibson		19	Rev. William Gillies
16	19	Donald Mackay Annamah Gibson	Donald McKay Susanna Gibson 💍 1859/1539	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	24 18	Silverstream do	2 years 10 years	do	William Gibson, father of the minor	19	Rev. William Gillies
17	26	Robert Given Patience Cardess	Robert Given Patience Careless 💍 1859/1548	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	32 21	Dunedin do	8 months 18 months			26	Rev. Thomas Burns
18	28	Edmund Bowler Jane Forsyth	Edmund Bowler Jane Forsyth 💍 1859/1593	Bachelor Spinster	Stockowner	28 28	Inch Clutha Dunedin	2 years 2 years	At the residence of Robert Torwick		28	Rev. Arthur Hunter Hyatt
19	28	William McGoun Agnes Sim	William McEwan Agnes Sim 💍 1859/1588	Seaman Spinster		28 18	Halfway Bush Dunedin	9 months 9 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin			Rev. Thomas Burns
20	4 March	Edward Andrew Margaret Bethune	Edward Andrews Amies Margaret Bethune 💍 1859/1557	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	28 21	Dunedin do	2 years 2 years	In the Church of England Dunedin		21	Rev. Thomas Burns
21	8	George Frederick Ritchie Mary Grey	George Frederick Petchell Mary Grey 💍 1859/1497	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	21 21	Inch Clutha Waihola	4 years 7 years	At the residence of Mrs Elizabeth Grey		8	Rev. John Mcnicol
22	14	James Goodall Janet McNechnie	James Goodall Janet McKechnie 💍 1859/1458	Widower Widow	Storekeeper	Full age	Tokomairiro do	1 year 7 years	At the residence of John McNechnie		14	Rev. William Bannerman
23	16	George Thomson Jenkins Rebecca Dawson	George Jones Jenkins Rebecca Dawson 💍 1859/1591	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 19	Dunedin do	5 years 6 years	At the Episcopal Church Dunedin	Benjamin Dawson, father of the minor	31	Rev. Arthur Hunter Hyatt
24	19	William Lamont Catherine Lyons	William Lamont Catherine Lyons 💍 1859/1596	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 22	do North East Valley	1 year 14 months	At the residence of James Boston		28	Rev. Arthur Hunter Hyatt

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).