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 280

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
38	17 April 1861	Thomas Lee Mary Goodsman	Thomas Lee Mary Goodsman 💍 1861/2819	Widower Spinster	Shoemaker	38 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	In the house of The Rev Thomas Burns D.D. Dunedin		17 April 1861	Rev Thomas Burns
39	18 April 1861	Adam Sprott Clark Janet Christie Peddie	Adam Sprott Clark Janet Christie Peddie 💍 1861/1696	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 3 years	In the house of James Peddie in Moray Place Dunedin		20 April 1861	The Rev Thomas Burns
40	20 April 1861	David Matheson Jane Anderson	David Matheson Jane Anderson 💍 1861/1935	Widower Widow	Laborer	40 33	North east Valley Dunedin	6 months 6 months	In the house of Charles Lawrison George Street Dunedin		20 April 1861	The Rev D M Stuart
41	20 April 1861	James M Intosh Mary Lindsay	James McIntosh Mary Lindsay 💍 1861/2825	Bachelor Spinster	Postman	31 26	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 4 years	In the house of John Craig in The Retreat Dunedin		20 April 1861	The Rev Thomas Burns
42	1 May 1861	William Keenan Susanhanna Raven	William Heenan Susanah Raven 💍 1861/3168	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 20	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 1 month	In the house of John Flanagan in High Street Dunedin	No relation or Guardians of the Colony	1 May 1861	The Rev D M Stuart
43	3 May 1861	William Lang Lemima Stewart	Wm Lang Jemima Stewart 💍 1861/3171	Bachelor Spinster	Victualler	23 17	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 7 months	In the house of Donald Stewart Prince Street Dunedin	Donald Stewart Father	3 May 1861	The Rev D M Stuart
44	8 May 1861	Henry Causey Hellen Deans	Henry Cassey Helen Deans 💍 1861/3176	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 26	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 3 months	In the house of George Deans George Street Dunedin		8 May 1861	The Rev D M Stuart
45	11 May 1861	Daniel White Esther Wood	Daniel White Esther Wood 💍 1861/3174	Bachelor Spinster	Victualler	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 8 months	In the house of Daniel White in Rattray Street Dunedin		11 May 1861	The Rev D M Stuart
46	16 May 1861	George Henry Slawson Janet Somerville	George Henry Slawson Janet Somerville 💍 1861/2782	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 26	Andersonsbay Andersonsbay	18 months 12 years	In the house of John Somerville Andersonsbay		30 May 1861	The Rev Thomas Burns
47	16 May 1861	Hugh M Kinlay Elizabeth Coleman	Hugh McKinlay Elizabeth Coleman 💍 1861/3011	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 20	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	2 years 10 years	In Hugh M Kinlay's house George Street Port Chalmers	Mary Coleman Mother	21 May 1861	The Rev William Bannerman

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).