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 327

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
99	15 April 1863	Edward McGrow Hearriett Jubber	Edward McGraw Harriett Jubber 💍 1863/5323	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 5 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin	1071		15 April 1863	Rev D. Moreau
100	15 April 1863	George Lewis Catherine Maloy	George Craig Catherine McLeod 💍 1863/7475 George Vincent Catherine Walsh 💍 1863/7253 George Hale Catherine Reardon 💍 1863/3889 George Hill Catherine Wynn 💍 1863/7097	Widower Spinster	Mariner	43 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 18 months	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin			15 April 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
101	16 April 1863	David MacGregor Isabella Mackenzie	David McGregor Isabella McKenzie 💍 1863/5037	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	29 years 24 years	Caversham Caversham	6 days 1 month	In the house of David Mac Gregor, Caversham	1174		16 April 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
102	16 April 1863	James Lonnie Mary Andrew	James Lounie Mary Andrew 💍 1863/4157	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	33 years 24 years	Dunedin Green Island	1 year 12 years	In the house of David Andrew, Green Island	1441		16 April 1863	Rev Thomas Burns, D. D.
103	17 April 1863	Thomas Heughan Betsy McIntosh	Thomas Hughan Betsy McIntosh 💍 1863/5320	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1070		17 April 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
104	18 April 1863	Robert Sounces Margaret Moses	Robert Souness Margaret Moses 💍 1863/5034	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 6 months	In the house of Robert Sounces, Grant Street, Dunedin	1173		18 April 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
105	18 April 1863	Archibald Fullerton Jane Paton	Archibald Fullerton Jane Paton 💍 1863/5338 Archibald Fullerton Jane Paton 💍 1863/5374	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 years 27 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	7 months 5 months	In the house of John Paton, Port Chalmers	1076, 1088	John Paton, father of bride	18 April 1863	Rev William Johnston
106	20 April 1863	Charles Pearson Fox Agnes Maguire	Charles Pearson Fox Agnes Maguire 💍 1863/5356	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 3 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1082		05 May 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
107	20 April 1863	Robert MacDonald Janet Krew	Robert MacDonald Janet Frew 💍 1863/5326	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 15 months	In the Registrar of Marriages' office, Dunedin	1092	Janet Krew, Mother	20 April 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).