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 334

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
162	8 June 1863	John Muir Jane Walker	John Muir Jane Walker 💍 1863/4135 Adolph Beissel Jane Walker 💍 1863/4398	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	31 36	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 12 months	In the house of Kenneth Masingth, Engineer, Rilssell Sheet, Dunedin	1454	8 June 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
163	8 June 1863	John Deakin Agnes Houston	John Deakin Agnes Houston 💍 1863/3534	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 21	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 6 weeks	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1005	8 June 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
164	8 June 1863	Thomas Garter Mary Sheldon	Thomas Carter Mary Shelden 💍 1863/5656 Thomas Cooper Mary Swan 💍 1863/4483 Thomas McKie Mary Sullivan 💍 1864/7535	Bachelor Widow	Storekeeper	33 36	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 8 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1006	8 June 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
165	8 June 1863	George Lumley Amelia Frances Lumley	George Lumley Amelia Frances Lumley 💍 1863/5662	Bachelor Spinster	Billiard room-keeper	40 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 4 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1008	8 June 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
166	8 June 1863	Samuel Dunshea Clementina Allan	Samuel Dunsted Clementina Allan 💍 1863/4404	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 4 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1359	8 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
167	9 June 1863	Henry Henning Lydia Hayes	Heinz Henning Lydia Hayes 💍 1863/3549	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	32 26	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 5 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1151	9 June 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
168	9 June 1863	George Stephenson Ellen Lloyd	George Stephenson Ellen Lloyd 💍 1863/4457	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	31 23	Dunedin Green Island	18 months 15 years	In the house of Mr George Lloyd, Green Island	1358	9 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
169	9 June 1863	William Wilkie Isabella Barron	William Wilkie Isabella Barron 💍 1863/3453	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 24	Dunedin Dunedin	5 months 2 years	In the house of William Bane, carpenter, Bond Street, Dunedin	1458	9 June 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
170	10 June 1863	John Falla Harriet Johnson	John Fallon Harriet Johnson 💍 1863/5641 John Castle Martha Johnson 💍 1863/5994	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 4 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1000	10 June 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).