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 335

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
168	10 June 1863	Robert Donaldson Mary Nelson	Robert Donaldson Mary Nelson 💍 1863/4407	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	30 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 months 5 weeks	In the house of Robert Donaldson, Howe Street, Dunedin	1361	10 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
173	10 June 1863	George Marshall Elizabeth Pearce	George Marshall Elizabeth Pearce 💍 1863/5644	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	22 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 13 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1001	10 June 1863	Rev. E. G. Edwards
173	11 June 1863	John August Niemann Mary Pettigrew	John Niemann Mary Pettigrew 💍 1863/3516	Bachelor Spinster	Licensed Victualler	26 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 7 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1360	11 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
174	12 June 1863	George Gillion Louisa Burtshow	George Gillion Louisa Burtenshaw 💍 1863/5647	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 9 months	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin	1002	12 June 1863	Rev. Isaac Harding
175	12 June 1863	John Samson Martha Newman	John Sampson Martha Newman 💍 1863/4144	Bachelor Spinster	General Dealer	37 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 15 months	In the house of the Rev. Thomas Burns, D.D., Dunedin	1457	12 June 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns, D.D.
176	13 June 1863	Alexander Heall Margaret McFarlane	Alexr Hal Mary McFarlane 💍 1863/4413	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	22 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 10 days	In the house of Archibald Weir, Upholsterer, Dunedin	1363	13 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
177	13 June 1863	William Morrison Margaret McNeill	William Morrison Margaret McNeil 💍 1863/4410 Michael Morrison Margaret McPhail 💍 1863/5214	Bachelor Spinster	Station Overseer	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Fredericks Dick, George Street, Dunedin	1362	13 June 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
178	15 June 1863	Theophile Junie Catherine Larken	Theophile Sunin Catherine Larken 💍 1863/4947	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	30 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 6 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin	1142	15 June 1863	Rev. D. Moreau
179	17 June 1863	Robert Turner Annie Maria Denham	Robert Turner Annie Maria Denham 💍 1863/4950	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 9 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1143	17 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 1898. More registers will be added when the Archives NZ Wellington reading room re-opens in September 2025.

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).