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 318

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
28	30 January 1863	John Holmes Margaret Swan Steedman	John Holmes Margaret Swan Steedman 💍 1863/4183	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	27 17	Caversham Caversham	6 months 14 days	In the house of John Holmes, Caversham	1429	James Steedman, father	31 January 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
29	30 January 1863	John Hislop Emily Christina Lea	John Hislop Emily Christina Lea 💍 1863/5482	Widower Spinster	Watchmaker	30 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 4 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	945		31 January 1863	The Registrar of Marriages
30	31 January 1863	Daniel Knox Jane Cottingham	Daniel Knox Jane Cottingham 💍 1863/3372	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 18	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 12 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	946		31 January 1863	Registrar of Marriages
31	31 January 1863	John Arthur Ann Taylor	John Arthur Ann Taylor 💍 1863/5181 John Keig Anne Taylor 💍 1863/6378 John McCubbin Annie Taylor 💍 1863/5506	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 2 years	In the house of James Taylor, East Valley	1022		31 January 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
32	3 February 1863	James McLean Jane McNair	James McLean Jane McNair 💍 1863/4186	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	31 32	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 14 days	In the house of James McLean, St Andrew Street, Dunedin	1430		3 February 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns
33	4 February 1863	William Worth Bridget Annie Burns	William Worth Bridget Annie Burns 💍 1863/5190	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 6 weeks	In the house of the Rev. D. Moreau, Duncan Street, Dunedin	1025		4 February 1863	Rev. D. Moreau
34	4 February 1863	William Henry Monson Mary Jane Ward	William Henry Manson Mary Jane Ward 💍 1863/5439	Widower Spinster	Builder & Contractor	34 24	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 15 months	In the house of William Henry Monson, Stuart Street, Dunedin	929		4 February 1863	Rev. D. Moreau
35	6 February 1863	William Hitchcock Stevens Charlotte Clop	William Hitchcock Stevens Charlotte Closs 💍 1863/5368	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 19	Deborah Bay Portobello Bay	12 months 18 months	In the house of the Rev. William Johnstone, Port Chalmers	108	Henry Clop, father	6 February 1863	Rev. William Johnstone
36	6 February 1863	John Thomas Wright Mary Tomasia Reynolds	John Thomas Wright Mary Tomasia Reynolds 💍 1863/5199	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 majority	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 13 years	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1029		6 February 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).