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 344

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
241	5 August 1863	Robert Edward Bell Elizabeth Reid	Robert Edward Bell Gallon Elizabeth Reid 💍 1863/4072	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	51 31	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 1 year	In the house of the Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin	1472		5 August 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
242	6 August 1863	John Mill Mary Wilson	John Mill Mary Wilson 💍 1863/5410	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 20	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	9 months 6 months	In the house of Arthur Brown, Carpenter, Port Chalmers	1100		5 August 1863	Rev. William [UNCLEAR]
243	5 August 1863	John McAuliff Janet McOnie	John McAuliff Janet McOnie 💍 1863/4063	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	26 37	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 9 months	In the house of the Rev. Thomas Burns, Dunedin	1469		5 August 1863	Rev Thomas Burns
244	5 August 1863	John Haphilus Collins Ellen Woodlock	John Theophilus Collins Ellen Woodlock 💍 1863/4281	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	24 20	Dunedin Dunedin	22 months 12 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1400	Ellen Waters (formerly Woodlock), Mother	5 August 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
245	6 August 1863	John McMackin Agnes Birmingham	James McMackin Agnes Cunningham 💍 1863/4293	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 11 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1404		6 August 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
246	8 August 1863	William Crowley Margaret McKirdy	Wm Crawley Margaret McKirdy 💍 1863/4305	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 15 months	In Knox Church Dunedin	1408	William McKirdy, Father	8 August 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
247	10 August 1863	Archibald Campbell Leckie Sarah Gordon	Archibald Campbell Leckie Sarah Gordon 💍 1863/4302	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 31	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 7 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1407		10 August 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
248	14 August 1863	Alexander Aitken Catherine Haldane	Alexander Aitken Catherine Halden 💍 1863/4748	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1272
249	17 August 1863	George Hamilton Roach Hannah O'Connell	George Hamilton Roac Hannah O'Connell 💍 1863/4260	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	22 months 22 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1414		17 August 1863	Rev. E. 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).