Intentions to Marry, 1860

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840372, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 168

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Thirtieth of September 1860

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
41	July 14	Thomas Bubb Isabella Franks	Thomas Bubb Isabella Shanks 💍 1860/3075	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 23	Dunedin Wakari	18 Months 10 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		July 30	the Rev Edward G. Edwards
42	July 17	William Henry Groves Elizabeth Barnes	William Henry Grove Elizabeth Barnes 💍 1860/3069	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 18	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 2 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	John Barnes Father	July 17	the Rev Edward G. Edwards
43	July 25	James Scott Mary McPherson	James Scott Mary McPherson 💍 1860/3165	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 26	Dunedin Do	3 Months 2 years	In David Miller's house in Moray Place Dunedin		July 25	the Rev Donald M. Stuart
44	August 13	William Fyfe Young Lucy Jefferis	William Alfred Young Lucy Jefferis 💍 1860/3072	Bachelor Spinster	Miller	28 18	Dunedin Dunedin	1 Year 2 Years	In the English Church Dunedin	John Jefferis Father	August 13	the Rev Edward G. Edwards
45	August 23	Alexander Mee Mary Jones	Alexander Mee Mary Jones 💍 1860/3078	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	27 20	Green Island Green Island	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	No person in the Colony entitled to give consent	August 23	the Rev Edward G. Edwards
46	August 30	Francis Cairns Elizabeth Johnston	Francis Cairns Elizabeth Johnstone 💍 1860/1834	Bachelor Spinster	Hut & Cattle keeper	30 23	Dunedin Dunedin	6 Months 6 Months	In the House of Duncan McFarlane Pelichet Bay, Dunedin		August 30	the Rev Donald M. Stuart
47	Sept 1	James Grant Helen Brown	James Grant Helen Brown 💍 1860/3168	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	27 19	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 5 days	In the House of John Grant Pelichet Bay Dunedin	No person in the Colony legally entitled to give Consent	Sept 1	the Rev Donald M. Stuart
48	Sept 3	William Russell Janet Wardrop	William Russell Janet Wardrop 💍 1860/1807	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	20 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 days	In the house of Robert Murray, Confectioner Dunedin	No person in the Colony legally entitled to give consent do do do	Sept 4	the Rev Donald M. Stuart
49	Sept 7	William Young Spiers Margaret Aitcheson	William Young Spiers Margaret Aitcheson 💍 1860/2065	Bachelor Widow	Cabinet Maker	27 30	Dunedin Dunedin	1 Year 1 Year	In the house of Margaret Aitcheson Dunedin		Sept 7	the Rev Donald M. Stuart
50	Sept 10	Josiah Hanaway Catherine Brown	Josiah Stanaway Catherine Brown 💍 1860/3081	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	26 17	Dunedin Dunedin	2 Years 1 Year	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	Archibald Brown Father	Sept 10	the Rev Edward G. Edwards

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).