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 354

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
315	7 October 1863	John William Tudor Sarah Brooks	John William Tudor Sarah Brooks 💍 1863/4872	Bachelor Spinster	Fishmonger	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 12 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1116		7 October 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
316	8 October 1863	John Lamont Jessie Tulloch	John Lamont Jessie Tullock 💍 1863/5145	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 12 months	In the house of Jack Lighter Dowling Street, Dunedin	1212		8 October 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
317	8 October 1863	Charles Augustus Heilgendorf Elizabeth Benstead	Charles Agustus Gustavus Hilgendorf Elizabeth Benstead 💍 1863/5127	Bachelor Spinster	Road Overseer	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	7 weeks 3 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1206		22 October 1863	[UNCLEAR]
318	12 October 1863	Alexander Candlish Ann Hamilton	Alexr Candlish Ann Hamilton 💍 1863/5136	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 30	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 3 days	In the house of Thomas Allan Gardner Pelichet Bay, Dunedin	1209		23 October 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
319	12 October 1863	Gilbert McKay Margaret Houston	Gilbert McKay Margaret Houliston 💍 1863/5157	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	23 23	West Taieri Dunedin	2 years 4 days	Knox Church, West Taieri	1216		23 October 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
320	12 October 1863	David McLeish Janet Wilson	David McLeish Janet Wilson 💍 1863/5142	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	30 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 months	In the house of William Henderson Duncan Street, Dunedin	1211		24 October 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
321	15 October 1863	Joseph Farrar Jones Annie Norman	Joseph Farrar Jones Annie Norman 💍 1863/5148	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	35 18	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 6 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1213	Edward Norman, Father	26 October 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
322	19 October 1863	James Murdoch Helen Farquhar	James Murdoch Helen Farquhar 💍 1863/5151	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	26 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the house of Julius Albert Pell Mell, George Street, Dunedin	1214		27 October 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
323	19 October 1863	Hugh Cameron Catherine Gill	Hugh Cameron Catherine Gill 💍 1863/5154	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 9 months	Knox Church, Dunedin	1215		29 October 1863	Rev. 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).