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 321

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1863

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

27 February 1863

James Burgess
Isabella McIntyre

James Burgess
Isabella McIntyre
💍 1863/5232

Bachelor
Spinster

Custom House Officer

26 years
22 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

13 months
13 months

In the house of Isabella McIntyre Duncan Street, Dunedin

1042

27 February 1863

Rev Isaac Harding

No	55
Date of Notice	27 February 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Burgess	Isabella McIntyre
	💍 1863/5232
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Custom House Officer
Age	26 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	13 months	13 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Isabella McIntyre Duncan Street, Dunedin
Folio	1042
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev Isaac Harding

27 February 1863

Andrew Thompson
Mary Thompson

Andrew Thompson
Mary Thompson
💍 1863/5445

Bachelor
Spinster

Constable

29 years
27 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 days
14 days

In Knox church Dunedin

931

27 February 1863

Rev D. M. Stuart

No	56
Date of Notice	27 February 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Andrew Thompson	Mary Thompson
	💍 1863/5445
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Constable
Age	29 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 days	14 days
Marriage Place	In Knox church Dunedin
Folio	931
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. M. Stuart

3 March 1863

Francis Sheriff
Mary Dowd

Francis Sheriff
Mary Dowd
💍 1863/5266

Bachelor
Spinster

Ship Steward

28 years
21 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 days
14 days

In Knox church, Dunedin

1053

3 March1863

Rev D. M. Stuart

No	57
Date of Notice	3 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Sheriff	Mary Dowd
	💍 1863/5266
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Ship Steward
Age	28 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	In Knox church, Dunedin
Folio	1053
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. M. Stuart

3 March 1863

Samuel Dyer
Louisa Joyce

Samuel Dyer
Louisa Joyce
💍 1863/5263

Bachelor
Spinster

Settler

30 years
28 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 days
14 days

In the house of the Rev Mr Smith, Great King Street, Dunedin

1052

3 March 1863

Rev D. M. Stuart

No	58
Date of Notice	3 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Samuel Dyer	Louisa Joyce
	💍 1863/5263
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Settler
Age	30 years	28 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 days	14 days
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev Mr Smith, Great King Street, Dunedin
Folio	1052
Consent
Date of Certificate	3 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. M. Stuart

4 March 1863

John Tregerthin
Emma Driver

John Tregerthen
Emma Driver
💍 1863/5909

Bachelor
Spinster

water police constable

29 years
19 years

Port Chalmers
Porakanu

18 months
3 years

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

923

Richard Driver, Father

5 March 1863

Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

No	59
Date of Notice	4 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Tregerthin	Emma Driver
BDM Match (97%)	John Tregerthen	Emma Driver
	💍 1863/5909
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	water police constable
Age	29 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Port Chalmers	Porakanu
Length of Residence	18 months	3 years
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	923
Consent	Richard Driver, Father
Date of Certificate	5 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

9 March 1863

William Howe Johns
Mary Kelly

William Howe Johns
Mary Kelly
💍 1863/5900

Bachelor
Spinster

Drayman

26 years
28 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
12 months

In the house of Rev D. Moreau, Duncan Street, Dunedin.

919

9 March 1863

Rev D. Moreau

No	60
Date of Notice	9 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Howe Johns	Mary Kelly
	💍 1863/5900
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Drayman
Age	26 years	28 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	12 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Rev D. Moreau, Duncan Street, Dunedin.
Folio	919
Consent
Date of Certificate	9 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. Moreau

10 March 1863

James Millar Bryce
Janet Allan

James Milles Bryce
Janet Allan
💍 1863/5260

Bachelor
Spinster

Blacksmith

29 years
27 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
5 days

In Knox Church, Dunedin

1050

10 March 1863

Rev D. M. Stuart

No	61
Date of Notice	10 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Millar Bryce	Janet Allan
BDM Match (94%)	James Milles Bryce	Janet Allan
	💍 1863/5260
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Blacksmith
Age	29 years	27 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	5 days
Marriage Place	In Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	1050
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. M. Stuart

10 March 1863

Henry Gregg
Jane King

Henry Gregg
Jane King
💍 1863/5257

Bachelor
Spinster

Soda-water Manufacturer

24 years
23 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

9 years
1 year

In the house of Henry Gregg, London Street, Dunedin

1050

10 March 1863

Rev D. M. Stuart

No	62
Date of Notice	10 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Gregg	Jane King
	💍 1863/5257
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Soda-water Manufacturer
Age	24 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	9 years	1 year
Marriage Place	In the house of Henry Gregg, London Street, Dunedin
Folio	1050
Consent
Date of Certificate	10 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev D. M. Stuart

11 March 1863

Macleod Clement Orbell
Alice Elizabeth Bamford

Macleod Clement Orbell
Alice Elizabeth Bamford
💍 1863/5903

Bachelor
Spinster

Stockowner

24 years
19 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
12 months

In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin

921

No person in the Colony entitled to give consent

11 March 1863

Rev I. A. Fenton

No	63
Date of Notice	11 March 1863
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Macleod Clement Orbell	Alice Elizabeth Bamford
	💍 1863/5903
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Stockowner
Age	24 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	12 months
Marriage Place	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin
Folio	921
Consent	No person in the Colony entitled to give consent
Date of Certificate	11 March 1863
Officiating Minister	Rev I. A. Fenton

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).