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

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
55	2 February 1863	James Burger Isabella McIntyre	James Burgess Isabella McIntyre 💍 1863/5232 James Burgh Isabella M Thompson 💍 1863/5332	Bachelor Spinster	Custom House Officer	26 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	13 months 13 months	In the house of Isabella Willings, Duncan Street, Dunedin	1042		19 February 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
56	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		21 February 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
57	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		23 February 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
58	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 Mr Smith, Great King Street, Dunedin	1052		25 February 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
59	4 March 1863	John Fregerthin Emma Driver	John Tregerthen Emma Driver 💍 1863/5909	Bachelor Spinster	Shoe Maker	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
60	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 Moreau Sanson, Shelly, Dunedin	919	the colony assented to the giving of consent	26 February 1863	Rev D. Moreau
61	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		27 February 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
62	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		27 February 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
63	11 March 1863	Macleod Clement Arbell 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	27 February 1863	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 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).