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 318

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
109	7 June 1862	James Edie Helen Coleman	James Edie Elenor Coleman 💍 1862/3208	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	22 years 18 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	2 years 8 years	In the house of Joseph Antony, Port Chalmers	Mary Williams, [UNCLEAR] Coleman	9 June 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
110	7 June 1862	John Campbell Gilchrist Allison Taylor	Jno Campbell Gilchrist Alison Taylor 💍 1862/3205	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 days 3 days	In Knox Church, Dunedin		9 June 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
111	10 June 1862	William Riley Maria Luin	William Riley Maria Quin 💍 1862/2970	Bachelor Spinster	Fireman	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 7 months	In the house of William Riley, Elm Row, Dunedin		10 June 1862	Revd Thomas Burns
112	10 June 1862	William Nelson Violet Ingram	Wm Nelson Violet Ingram 💍 1862/3217	Bachelor Widow	Compositor	33 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 1 year	In the house of Violet Ingram, Goal Street, Dunedin		10 June 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
113	13 June 1862	John Skinner Elizabeth Weir	John Skinner Elizabeth Weir 💍 1862/2967	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	41 years 35 years	Anderson's Bay Anderson's Bay	9 weeks 2 years	In the Revd Mr Thomas Burns' Manse, Dunedin		13 June 1862	Revd Thomas Burns
114	13 June 1862	Henry Appleby Eliza Luinn	Henry Appleby Eliza Quinn 💍 1862/2855	Bachelor Spinster	Tanner	22 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 1 month	In the house of the Revd D. Maredu Canongate, Dunedin		13 June 1862	Revd D. Morean
115	18 June 1862	David Law Alice Cochrane		Bachelor Spinster	Ship Carpenter	36 years 36 years	Port Chalmers North Taieri	3 years 1 1/2 years	In the house of John Bell, North Taieri		18 June 1862	Revd James Urie
116	19 June 1862	Peter Lindsay Susan Hill	Peter Lindsay Susan Hill 💍 1862/2973	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Merchant	25 years 21 years	North East Valley Dunedin	3 years 13 years	In the house of John Hill, Cabinetmaker, Dunedin		19 June 1862	Revd Thomas Burns
117	20 June 1862	Peter Kinnie Janet Wallace	Peter Finnie Janet Wallace 💍 1862/3223	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 years 22 years	Dunedin District Dunedin District	2 months 2 weeks	In the house of Peter Kinnie, Dunedin District		20 June 1862	Revd 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).