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 234

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
59	1 October 1860	William Barnes Margaret Black	William Barnes Margaret Black 💍 1860/3084	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	21 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 5 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	No person in the Colony to give consent	October 1	Edward G. Edwards
60	6 October 1860	Frederick Jacob Arlidge Mary Sutherland Allan	Frederick Jacob Arledge Mary Sutherland Allen 💍 1860/2083	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	26 21	Dunedin Port Chalmers	2 months 4 years	In the house of Colin Allan Schoolmaster Port Chalmers		October 6	William Johnston
61	6 October 1860	William Williams Emily Mathie	William Williams Emily Mathie 💍 1860/3087	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 19	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 3 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	Alex Mathie Father of Emily Mathie	October 8	Edward G. Edwards
62	8 October 1860	James Connen Catherine Reynolds	James Counew Katherine Reynolds 💍 1861/1626	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 6 days	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		October 8	Edward G. Edwards
63	8 October 1860	John Smith Jane Watson	John Smith Jane Watson 💍 1860/3299	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	32 35	Dunedin Dunedin	7 weeks 2 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		October 8	The Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
64	23 October 1860	Thomas Cook Sarah Maria Morris	Thomas Cook Sarah Maria Morris 💍 1860/3090	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	22 21	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	3 weeks 2 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		October 23	Edward G. Edwards
65	2 November 1860	Thomas Ronaldson Euphemia Rennie	Thomas Ronaldson Euphemia Rennie 💍 1860/3134	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 7 days	In the House of Thomas Ronaldson Carpenter, Rattray Street		November 2	Donald M. Stewart
66	5 November 1860	Alexander Ross Mary McDonald	Alexander Ross Mary McDonald 💍 1860/3137	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 26	Saddlehill Dunedin	6 months 1 month	In the House of Thomas Burnside, Taieri District		November 5	Donald M. Stewart
67	20 November 1860	James Galbraith Dinah Hammond	James Galbraith Dinah Hammond 💍 1860/3209	Bachelor Spinster	Pilot	31 22	Port Chalmers near Port Chalmers	18 months 2 years	In the House of Charles Hammond near Port Chalmers		November 20	William Johnston

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).