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 308

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
29	14 February 1862	James Metherick Mary Sim	James Petherick Mary Sim 💍 1862/3056	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 15 months	In the house of George Harriett, George Street Dunedin		14 February 1862	Revd Thomas B
30	19 February 1862	William Robertson Bridget James	William Robertson Bridget James 💍 1862/2846	Bachelor Widow	Boarding house Keeper	25 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 6 weeks	In the house of the Revd D. Moreau, Canongate Dunedin		19 February 1862	Revd D. Moreau
31	20 February 1862	William Towers Heelen Smith	William Towers Helen Smith 💍 1862/2849	Bachelor Spinster	Soldier	25 years 16 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 14 weeks	In the tent occupied by Mary Smith, pitched near the Military Camp, Dunedin	Mary Smith, Mother	20 February 1862	Revd D Moreau
32	21 February 1862	Francis Ballantine Elizabeth Clitchison	Francis Ballantyne Elizabeth Aitchinson 💍 1862/3143	Widower Spinster	Agriculturist Agriculturist	41 years 29 years	Wakari Dunedin	1 year 5 months	In the house of Francis Ballantine, Agriculturist, Wakari		21 February 1862	Revd D.M. S
33	22 February 1862	Henry Driver Mary Frances Morton	Henry Driver Mary Frances Morton 💍 1862/3265	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 3 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	William Morton, Father	22 February 1862	Revd Edward G. E
34	22 February 1862	Charl Fabricius Caroline Sharry	Charl Fabricius Caroline Shery 💍 1862/3268	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 5 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		22 February 1862	Revd Edward G. E
35	25 February 1862	John White Mary Anne Heavers	John White Mary Anne Havers 💍 1862/3271	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	37 years 25 years	Port Chalmers Dunedin	3 weeks 16 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		25 February 1862	Revd Edward G. E
36	25 February 1862	Nicholas John Burrows Betsy Fairweather	Nicholas John Burrows Betsy Fairweather 💍 1862/3277	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	30 years 21 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	1 year 3 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		25 February 1862	Revd Edward G. E
37	25 February 1862	Nicholas Fitzgibbon Jessie McDougal	Nicholas Fitzgibbon Jessie McDonald 💍 1862/3274	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 6 months	In the house of D Moreau, Canongate, Dunedin		25 February 1862	Revd D. Moreau
38	27 February 1862	Edward Johnston Emily Chittock	Edward Johnston Emily Chittock 💍 1862/3384	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	32 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin		27 February 1862	Registrar of Marriages

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).