Intentions to Marry, 1863

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840375, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 360

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1863

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
387	19 December 1863	John Hogan Margaret Hogan	John Hogan Margaret Hogan 💍 1863/5623	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 3 months	Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin	993		19 December 1863	Rev. D. Morea
388	19 December 1863	Alexander Courtgate Harriet Maria Lambert	Alexander Eastgate Harriet Maria Lambert 💍 1863/5488	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 7 years	House of Mrs Lambert, William Street, Dunedin	948		19 December 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
389	21 December 1863	John Reid Mary Jane Duffy	John Reid Mary Jane Duffy 💍 1863/4552	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 days 4 days	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1329		21 December 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
390	21 December 1863	George Speechly Ward Mary Ann Mowatt	George Speedy Ward Mary Ann Mowatt 💍 1863/5485	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	31 30	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 8 months	House of George Speechly Ward, Hardy, York Place, Dunedin	947		21 December 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
391	22 December 1863	William Arthur Bohman Esther Brooks	William Arthur Colman Esther Brooks 💍 1863/4567	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	36 28	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 12 months	House of Joseph Cope, George Street, Dunedin	1334		22 December 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
392	22 December 1863	Thomas Brown Grace Gardiner	Thomas Brown Grace Gardiner 💍 1863/5515	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	22 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 3 years	House of David Gardiner, Sunnyside, Dunedin	957	David Gardiner, father	22 December 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
393	22 December 1863	John McCubbin Annie Taylor	John McCubbin Annie Taylor 💍 1863/5506	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	33 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 months	Church, Dunedin	954		22 December 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
394	22 December 1863	George Richard West Mary Elizabeth Newman	George Richard West Mary Elizabeth Newman 💍 1863/5494	Bachelor Spinster	Music Seller	27 26	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 10 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	950		22 December 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
395	23 December 1863	John Mackersy Elizabeth Lawson	John Mackersy Elizabeth Lawson 💍 1863/4555	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 6 weeks	Office of Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1330		23 December 1863	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

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).