1862 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840374, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

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

Page 330

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31st of December 1862

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
193	16 October 1862	John Black Ellen Dillon	John Black Ellenor Dillon 💍 1862/2043	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 8 months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin	No person in the colony to give a consent	16 October 1862	Rev. D. Moreau
194	18 October 1862	Arthur Tidey Rosanna Grey	Arthur Tidey Rosanna Gray 💍 1862/2910	Bachelor Widow	Wheelwright	25 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 9 months	In the house of Mrs Rosanna Grey, George Street, Dunedin		18 October 1862	Rev. Thomas Burns
195	18 October 1862	Heber Henry Hewson Bridget Whyte	Heber Henry Hewson Bridget White 💍 1862/2861	Bachelor Spinster	Mounted Constable	26 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 1 year	In the house of the Rev. D. Moreau, Duncan Street, Dunedin		18 October 1862	Rev. D. Moreau
196	23 October 1862	John Brown Caroline Wilks	John Brown Caroline Wilks 💍 1862/2864	Widower Widow	Lighterman	47 years 35 years	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 8 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin		23 October 1862	Rev. D. Moreau
197	23 October 1862	John Gilson Sarah Validy	John Gibson Sarah Validay 💍 1862/2867	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the house of John Gilson, Rattray Street, Dunedin		23 October 1862	Rev. D. Moreau
198	25 October 1862	Marcus Brown Power Bridget Kusick	Marcus Brown Power Bridget Kussick 💍 1862/2633	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 8 months	In the house of the Rev. D. Moreau, Duncan Street, Dunedin		25 October 1862	Rev. D. Moreau
199	25 October 1862	Robert Scott Murray Mary Young	Robert Scott Murray Mary Young 💍 1862/3428	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	24 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin		25 October 1862	Registrar of Marriages
200	28 October 1862	Henry Nancolas Moore Margaret Ann Gilson	Henry Nancolous Moore Margaret Ann Gibson 💍 1862/3003	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 1 year	In the house of William [UNCLEAR] Heather, George Street, Dunedin		28 October 1862	Rev. D. M. Stuart
201	29 October 1862	James Forbes Black Agnes Wilson	James Forbes Black Agnes Wilson 💍 1862/2913	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	27 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 4 years	In the house of George Duncan, George Street, Dunedin		29 October 1862	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 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).