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 346

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
259	27 August 1863	James Carmichael Elizabeth Millon	James Carmichael Elizabeth Millon 💍 1863/5751	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Repuster	23 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	Knox Church, Dunedin	869		27 August 1863	Rev. S. M. Stuart
260	28 August 1863	Daniel Ellison Hona Wera	Daniel Ellison Hana Wera 💍 1863/5742	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	22 20	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 20 years	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	866	No person to give consent	28 August 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
261	28 August 1863	Patrick Ford Ellen Grow	Patrick Forde Ellen Crow 💍 1863/5745	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Heilerin Boarding House, Clydesdale Street, Dunedin	867		28 August 1863	Rev. D. Morca
262	29 August 1863	Thomas Bruce Grable Janet Morrison	Thos Bruce Crabbe Janet Morrison 💍 1863/4380	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	34 18	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 5 years	House of James Morrison, York Place, Dunedin	1372	James Morrison, Father	29 August 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
263	29 August 1863	Jonathan Tippett Mary Ann Lynch	Jonathan Tippett Mary Ann Lynch 💍 1863/4582	Widower Widow	Miner	34 31	Dunedin Dunedin	11 weeks 6 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1339		29 August 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
264	29 August 1863	Thomas Moodie Jane Dalziel	Thomas Moodie Jane Dalziell 💍 1863/4078	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	26 22	Dunedin Wakari	3 years 1 year	House of William Chisholm, Dunedin	1474		29 August 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
265	31 August 1863	Edward Jonge Mary Ann Austin	Edward Tonge Mary Ann Austin 💍 1863/4377	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	36 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 1 year	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1971		3 September 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
266	1 September 1863	Alexander Humson Christina McAuslan	Alexander Thomson Christina McAuslan 💍 1863/4362	Bachelor Spinster	Gunsmith	27 26	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	House of James Milne, Maitland Street, Dunedin	1386		1 September 1863	Rev. Donald Meiklyor
267	2 September 1863	William Wheeler Mary Macessy	William Harper Mary Hapes 💍 1863/5299 William Chandler Mary Sherry 💍 1863/7460 William Walker Mary Cameron 💍 1864/6190	Bachelor Spinster	Surgeon	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 1 year	Episcopal Church, Dunedin			2 September 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards

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).