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 326

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1862

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
174	10 September 1862	William bullen Whitehead Isabella Thomson Gilson	Wm Cullen Whitehead Isabella Thompson Gibson 💍 1862/2988	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	35 years 24 years	Dunedin North Taieri	11 months 6 months	In the house of William Gibson, Farmer, North Taieri	5/174	10 September 1862	Reverend William Will
175	11 September 1862	John Hunter Rosa Coleman	John Hunter Rosa Coleman 💍 1862/3422	Bachelor Widow	Stockman	49 years 48 years	Otago Heads Murdering Beach	21 years 14 years	In the Office of Marriages, Dunedin		11 September 1862	Registrar of Marriages
176	12 September 1862	Peter McHardy Janet McDonald	Peter McHardy Janet McDonald 💍 1862/2951	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	28 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 2 years	In James Mc Donald's house, Mason, Dunedin		12 September 1862	Reverend Thomas Burns, D.D.
177	12 September 1862	John Leattie Caroline Stark	John Peattie Caroline Mark 💍 1862/3355	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 years 24 years	The Forbury Dunedin	7 months 6 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		12 September 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
178	12 September 1862	James Kent Robertson Barbara Stevenson	James Kent Robertson Barbara Stevenson 💍 1862/2808	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 years 22 years	Green Island Green Island	9 months 6 months	In the house of James McGill, Farm Servant, Green Island		12 September 1862	Reverend William Will
179	17 September 1862	Andrew Lockie Emily Sophia Price	Andrew Lockie Emily Sophia Price 💍 1862/3358	Widower Spinster	Merchant	48 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 8 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		17 September 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
180	19 September 1862	William Curtis Mary Ann Richards	William Curtis Mary Ann Richards 💍 1862/2948	Widower Spinster	Labourer	38 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 10 months	In the house of William Campbell, Labourer, Dunedin		19 September 1862	Reverend Thomas Burns
181	20 September 1862	Joseph Williams Margaret Ryan	Joseph Williams Margaret Ryan 💍 1862/3361	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		20 September 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
182	24 September 1862	Edward Smith Mary Ann Taylor	Edward Smith Mary Ann Taylor 💍 1862/3364	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		24 September 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards

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).