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 307

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
20	25 January 1862	William Cameron Ann McLachlan	William Cameron Ann McLachlan 💍 1862/2732	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 18 months	In the house of Alexander Bremner, George Street, Dunedin		25 January 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
21	25 January 1862	John Russell Helen Cunningham	John Rufsell Helen Cunningham 💍 1862/2176	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	28 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 6 months	In the house of George Anderson, Seuter, East Harbour		25 January 1862	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
22	27 January 1862	Alexander Robb Mary Jane Espie	Alexander Robb Mary Jan Espie 💍 1862/3131	Widower Spinster	Ploughman	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 2 months	In the house of Paul Crawford, Mason, Dunedin		27 January 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
23	27 January 1862	Sydney James Annie Logie	Sydney James Annie Logie 💍 1862/3256	Bachelor Spinster	Livery Stable Keeper	36 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 4 years	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	William Logie, Father	27 January 1862	Revd Edward G. Edwards
24	3 February 1862	Thomas Kelly Jessie McLauchlan	Thomas Kelly Jessie McLachlan 💍 1862/3140	Bachelor Spinster	Pilot, Otago	27 years 20 years	Otago Heads Maclaggan Street Dunedin	3 years 1 years	In the house of Donald McLauchlan, Maclaggan Street, Dunedin	Donald McLauchlan, Father	3 February 1862	Revd D. M. Stuart
25	5 February 1862	John Birkett Dale Alice Macpherson	John Birkett Dale Alicia McPherson 💍 1862/3053	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	32 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 4 months	In the house of Mr Geo. Carter, George Street, Dunedin		5 February 1862	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
26	7 February 1862	John Thompson Annie Brownhill	John Thompson Annie Brownhill 💍 1862/3259	Bachelor Spinster	Cattle Dealer	28 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 days 6 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	No person to give consent	7 February 1862	Revd Edward G. Edwards
27	7 February 1862	John Macanlay Ann McGregor	John McAulay Ann McGregor 💍 1862/5238	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 1 year	In the house of the Revd Thomas Burns D. D., Dunedin		7 February 1862	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
28	12 February 1862	John Gracie Elizabeth McMaster	John Gracie Elizabeth McMaster 💍 1862/2782	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Caversham	6 months 8 months	In the house of Allan McMaster, Saddle Hill		12 February 1862	Revd William Will

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).