Intentions to Marry, 1861

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840373, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 11 2024

Page 279

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1861 Registrar John Gillies

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

14 March 1861

John Washburn Hunter
Jemima Robb

No corresponding marriage registration located

Bachelor
Spinster

Stockowner

52
22

Otago heads
Otago heads

20 years
6 years

In the house of the Rev William Johnston Port Chalmers

Note the notice was given last quarter, the certificate was issued this quarter

15 April 1861

Rev William Johnston

No	25
Date of Notice	14 March 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Washburn Hunter	Jemima Robb
	💍 No corresponding marriage registration located
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stockowner
Age	52	22
Dwelling Place	Otago heads	Otago heads
Length of Residence	20 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev William Johnston Port Chalmers
Folio
Consent	Note the notice was given last quarter, the certificate was issued this quarter
Date of Certificate	15 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev William Johnston

1 April 1861

Anthony Bowlin
Jane Anderson

Anthony Bowlin
Jane Anderson
💍 1861/3005

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

22
20

Port Chalmers
Port Chalmers

4 months
2 years

In the home of Mrs Anderson Port Chalmers

Ann Anderson, Mother of Jane Anderson

1 April 1861

Rev William Johnston

No	30
Date of Notice	1 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Anthony Bowlin	Jane Anderson
	💍 1861/3005
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	22	20
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	4 months	2 years
Marriage Place	In the home of Mrs Anderson Port Chalmers
Folio
Consent	Ann Anderson, Mother of Jane Anderson
Date of Certificate	1 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev William Johnston

3 April 1861

Peter Shea
Martha Glover

Peter Shea
Martha Glover
💍 1861/3008

Bachelor
Widow

Sawyer

26
30

Sawyersbay
Port Chalmers

3 months
4 months

In the house of the Revd. William Johnston Port Chalmers

3 April 1861

Rev William Johnston

No	31
Date of Notice	3 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Peter Shea	Martha Glover
	💍 1861/3008
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Sawyer
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Sawyersbay	Port Chalmers
Length of Residence	3 months	4 months
Marriage Place	In the house of the Revd. William Johnston Port Chalmers
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev William Johnston

3 April 1861

William Herbert Perkins
Catherine Perkins

William Herbert Perkins
Catherine Perkins
💍 1861/2822

Bachelor
Spinster

Clerk

24
19

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 year
11 years

In the house of Mrs Catherine Perkins High street Dunedin

Catherine Perkins, Mother

3 April 1861

Rev Thomas Burns

No	32
Date of Notice	3 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Herbert Perkins	Catherine Perkins
	💍 1861/2822
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Clerk
Age	24	19
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 year	11 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs Catherine Perkins High street Dunedin
Folio
Consent	Catherine Perkins, Mother
Date of Certificate	3 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Burns

9 April 1861

Andrew Anderson
Catherine Auchterlone

Andrew Anderson
Catherine Auchterlonie
💍 1861/1923

Bachelor
Spinster

Tailor

22
27

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
2 months

In the house of Andrew Anderson York Place Dunedin

9 April 1861

Rev Thomas Burns

No	33
Date of Notice	9 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Anderson	Catherine Auchterlone
BDM Match (98%)	Andrew Anderson	Catherine Auchterlonie
	💍 1861/1923
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Tailor
Age	22	27
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	2 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Andrew Anderson York Place Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Burns

9 April 1861

Andrew Kinninmouth
Jane Porteous

Andrew Kinninmouth
Jane Porteous
💍 1861/3126

Bachelor
Spinster

Labourer

24
28

North east Valley
North east Valley

18 months
1 year

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

9 April 1861

Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

No	34
Date of Notice	9 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Kinninmouth	Jane Porteous
	💍 1861/3126
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Labourer
Age	24	28
Dwelling Place	North east Valley	North east Valley
Length of Residence	18 months	1 year
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

9 April 1861

Donald Sutherland
Margaret Deans

Donald Sutherland
Margaret Deans
💍 1861/2816

Widower
Spinster

Shepherd

29
25

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 days
4 days

In the house of William McLean Wakari

9 April 1861

Rev Thomas Burns

No	35
Date of Notice	9 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Sutherland	Margaret Deans
	💍 1861/2816
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Shepherd
Age	29	25
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 days	4 days
Marriage Place	In the house of William McLean Wakari
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Burns

11 April 1861

William Brown
Margaret Shand

William Treacy Brown
Margaret Shand
💍 1861/2969

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29
27

Saddlehill
Dunedin

2 years
10 years

In the house of Mrs Shand Green Island

East Taieri

11 April 1861

Rev William Will

No	36
Date of Notice	11 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Brown	Margaret Shand
BDM Match (83%)	William Treacy Brown	Margaret Shand
	💍 1861/2969
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29	27
Dwelling Place	Saddlehill	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs Shand Green Island
Folio	East Taieri
Consent
Date of Certificate	11 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev William Will

13 April 1861

Thomas Glass
Margaret Eadie

Thomas Glass
Margaret Eadie
💍 1861/2812

Bachelor
Spinster

Mason

25
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 weeks
2 weeks

In the house of the Rev Thomas Burns Dunedin

13 April 1861

Rev Thomas Burns

No	37
Date of Notice	13 April 1861
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Glass	Margaret Eadie
	💍 1861/2812
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mason
Age	25	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 weeks	2 weeks
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev Thomas Burns Dunedin
Folio
Consent
Date of Certificate	13 April 1861
Officiating Minister	Rev Thomas Burns

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).