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 293

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
121	04 November 1861	Nicol Ferguson Agnes Johnston	Nicol Ferguson Agnes Johnston 💍 1861/3074	Bachelor Spinster	Farmervant	21 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 1 year	In the house of Hugh Richardson Laborer North Court Valley		04 November 1861	DM Stuart
122	05 November 1861	William Wm Calcraft Jane Henrietta Ronstadt	William John Calcraft Jane Henrietta Roustad 💍 1861/3112	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 11 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		05 November 1861	Edward G Edwards
123	06 November 1861	James Steel Eliza Matilda Craig	James Steel Eliza Matilda Craig 💍 1861/3041	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	38 25	Portobello Port Chalmers	2 years 1 year	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		06 November 1861	John Gillies Registrar
124	08 November 1861	Benjamin Biston Janet Robertson	Benjamin Bistow Janet Robertson 💍 1861/2749	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 17	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 4 years	In the home of David Robertson, Rattray Street Dunedin	David Robertson, Father	08 November 1861	Thomas Burns
125	09 November 1861	William Duthie Margaret McKay	William Duthie Margaret McKay 💍 1861/2746	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	32 25	Dunedin Dunedin	18 days 17 days	In the house of James Williams, Stafford Street Dunedin		09 November 1861	Thomas Burns
126	11 November 1861	Julius Sechof Jane M. Mahan	Julius Lehof Jane McMahon 💍 1861/3118	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	31 26	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 6 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin		11 November 1861	Edward G Edwards
127	16 November 1861	Charles Smith Helen Duncan	Charles Smith Helen Duncan 💍 1861/2743	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 3 years	At the House of Charles Smith Dunedin		16 November 1861	Thomas Burns
128	18 November 1861	George Gould Elizabeth Lewis	George Gould Elizabeth Lewis 💍 1861/3044	Widower Spinster	Merchant	39 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		18 November 1861	John Gillies Registrar
129	19 November 1861	Robert Scott Ann M'Neil	Robert Scott Anne McNeil 💍 1861/2987	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 17	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 4 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	Archibald M'Neil, Father	19 November 1861	John Gillies Registrar

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).