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 283

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1861

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
61	01 July 1861	George Keith Elisabeth Millar	George Keith Elizabeth Miller 💍 1861/2792	Bachelor Spinster	Maiter	21 20	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 3 months	In the dwelling house of George Keith corner Filleul Street Dunedin	No Guardian in the Colony	01 July 1861	Thomas Burns DD
62	01 July 1861	Percival Hazel Dale Elizabeth McIntyre	Percival Hexel Dale Elizabeth McIntyre 💍 1861/3200	Bachelor Spinster	Landingwaiter	32 18	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 15 months	In the house of Dugald Mc Intyre, Mason, Hanover Street, Dunedin	Dugald McIntyre Father	01 July 1861	D M. Stuart
63	01 July 1861	Thomas Kells Mary Haughey	Thomas Kells Mary Haughey 💍 1861/1662	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	23 18	Port Chalmers Dunedin	19 months 12 months	In the Episcopal Church	Michael Haughey Father	01 July 1861	Edward G Edwards
64	02 July 1861	Campbell Thomson Sarah Juliana Jeffreys	Campbell Thomson Sarah Juliana Jeffreys 💍 1861/2758	Bachelor Spinster	Ruthholder	29 21	Rockland Run North Taieri The Forbury	1 month 5 years	In the house of The Rev° Charles Leffreys of the Forbury		02 July 1861	Edward G Edwards
65	02 July 1861	James Reid Ann Cooper	James Reid Anne Cooper 💍 1861/3194	Bachelor Spinster	Watchmaker	27 24	Dunedin Dunedin	9 years 10 months	In the house of James Reid Filleul Street Dunedin		02 July 1861	D. M. Stuart
66	06 July 1861	Charles Fell Ellen Eustice	Charles Fell Ellen Justice 💍 1861/3197	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	24 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 6 months	In the house of George Dutch Carpenter Street Kingstreet Dunedin	Mary Eustice Mother	06 July 1861	D M Stuart
67	08 July 1861	John Wilson Mary Cameron	John Wilson Mary Cameron 💍 1861/3129	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 17	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	Lewis Cameron Father	08 July 1861	John Gillies Registrar
68	09 July 1861	Hugh Fraser Mary Austin Graham	Hugh Fraser Mary Austin Graham 💍 1861/1627	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	29 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		09 July 1861	John Gillies Registrar
69	11 July 1861	Hugh Gourlay Betsey Elizabeth Dawson	Hugh Gourlay Betsy Elizabeth Dawson 💍 1861/3202	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	21 16	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 7 years	In the house of Mrs Biddy Dawson Pelichetbay Dunedin	Biddy Dawson Mother	11 July 1861	D M Stuart

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).