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 317

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
100	31 May 1862	Alexander Gilmour Isabella Gow	Alexander Gilmour Isabella Gow 💍 1862/2956	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	28 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 weeks 5 months	In the house of William Mills, Stafford Street, Dunedin		31 May 1862	Reverend Thomas Burns, DD
101	3 June 1862	William Jenkins Janet Jennan	William Jenkins Janet Penman 💍 1862/3407	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Wright	30 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 4 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		3 June 1862	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
102	3 June 1862	Cornelius Stanley M'Glew Helen Augusta Ford	Cornelius Henley McGlen Helen A Ford 💍 1862/3202	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 17 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 3 years	In the house of Cornelius Stanley M'Glew, Waichet Bay, Dunedin	Sarah Ann Ford, Mother	5 June 1862	Reverend D. M. Stuart
103	4 June 1862	William Baird Ogilvie Margaret Christie	William Baird Ogilvie Margaret Christie 💍 1862/2796	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 years 19 years	Dunedin Saddlehill	8 months 8 years	In the house of James Christie, Saddlehill, East Taieri	James Christie, Father	4 June 1862	Reverend William Will
104	5 June 1862	William Barcock Agnes Anderson	William Barcock Agnes Anderson 💍 1862/2389	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	32 years 31 years	Upper Kaikorai Upper Kaikorai	4 months 9 weeks	In the house of John Lockley, Upper Kaikorai		5 June 1862	Reverend Thomas Burns, DD
105	5 June 1862	James Ackleshaw Sarah Flude	James Ockleshaw Sarah Flude 💍 1862/3546	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	No person to give consent	5 June 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
106	5 June 1862	Peter Mathewson Isabella Stuart	Peter Mathewson Isabella Stewart 💍 1862/3220	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 days 3 years	In the house of Mrs. Cargdrien, Filleul Street, Dunedin		5 June 1862	Reverend D. M. Stuart
107	7 June 1862	James Drake Elizabeth Leighton	James Drake Elizabeth Latham 💍 1862/3313	Bachelor Spinster	Ship Wright	27 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 3 years	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin		7 June 1862	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
108	7 June 1862	Frederick Michael Peterson Margaret Lochead	Frederick Michael Peterson Margaret Lochead 💍 1862/2964	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 years 26 years	North East Valley North East Valley	5 months 4 years	In the house of Mr. Walter Sympson, North East Valley		7 June 1862	Reverend Thomas Burns, DD

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).