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 340

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
205	8 July 1863	Robert McDonald Elizabeth Nicol	Robert McDonald Elizabeth Nicoll 💍 1863/4111	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	35 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 6 months	In the house of John Hill, Dowling Street, Dunedin	1466		8 July 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
206	9 July 1863	Charles Yarbrough Gold Caroline Augusta Evans	Charles Yarburgh Gold Caroline Agusta Evans 💍 1863/5833	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	23 18	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 1 month	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	890	Mary Ann Evans, Mother	9 July 1863	Registrar of Marriages
207	10 July 1863	Alexander Hood Ann Davis	Alexander Hood Ann Davis 💍 1863/5839	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	36 31	Dunedin Dunedin	5 weeks 9 months	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Dunedin	899		10 July 1863	Rev. Isaac Haan
208	11 July 1863	Edward Pettit Lucy Champion	Edward Pettitt Lucy Champion 💍 1863/5863	Bachelor Spinster	Chemist	28 23	Tokomairiro Dunedin	6 months 2 weeks	In the Episcopal Church, Tokomairiro	907		11 July 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
209	11 July 1863	Augustus Frederick Johnson Adelaide Boyd	Augustus Frederick Johnston Adelaide Boyd 💍 1863/5842	Bachelor Widow	Publican	31 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 18 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	900		11 July 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
210	11 July 1863	Benjamin Wildey Catherine Monroe	Benjamin Wildey Catharine Munro 💍 1863/5848	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 6 months	In the house 149 George Street, Dunedin	902		11 July 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
211	13 July 1863	John Charles Donovan Margaret Hayes	John Donovan Margaret Haise 💍 1863/3610	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	30 25	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 8 months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin			13 July 1863	Rev. D. Moreau
212	13 July 1863	William Allen Mary Collier	Wm Allan Mary Collier 💍 1863/5888	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 6 months	In the house, Great King Street, Dunedin	915		13 July 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
213	15 July 1863	Frederick Roach Mary Agnes Reynolds	Frederick Bouch Mary Agnes Reynolds 💍 1863/5857	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	26 18	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 8 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	905	No person entitled to give consent	15 July 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).