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 341

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
214	14 July 1863	James Chrystal Malloch Kate Atkinson	James Chrystal Mallach Cate Atkinson 💍 1863/5845	Widower Widow	Merchant	38 years 23 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	1 year 10 weeks	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	901		15 July 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
215	15 July 1863	William Baldwin Janet Curling Buchanan	William Baldwin Janet Curling Buchanan 💍 1863/4278	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	27 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 1 year	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1399	Andrew Buchanan, Father	16 July 1863	Rev. Edward G. Edwards
216	17 July 1863	John Riordan Mary Jane Halpin	John Riordan Mary Jane Halpin 💍 1863/5875	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	28 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 18 months	In the house of James Marshall, Walker Street, Dunedin	911		17 July 1863	Rev. D. Moreau
217	11 July 1863	Edwin James King Mary Elizabeth Asquith	Edwin James King Mary Elizabeth Asquith 💍 1863/4114	Bachelor Widow	Stationer	21 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 6 months	In the house of the Rev. Dr. Thomas Burns, Dunedin	1469		17 July 1863	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
218	11 July 1863	John Thomas Evans Emma Schacklock	John Thomas Evans Emma Shacklock 💍 1863/5894	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 years 21 years	Portobello Portobello	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the house of the Rev. William Johnston, Portobello	919		17 July 1863	Rev. William Johnston
219	11 July 1863	Henry Schacklock Elizabeth Bradly	Henry Shacklock Elizabeth Bradley 💍 1863/5416	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 years 25 years	Portobello Portobello	12 months 2 weeks	In the house of the Rev. William Johnston, Portobello	1102		17 July 1863	Rev. William Johnston
220	13 July 1863	William McKenzie Mary Milne	Wm McKenzie Mary Milne 💍 1863/5885	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 26 years	Caversham Caversham	2 years 3 weeks	In the house of Rosannah Noble, Caversham	914		17 July 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
221	13 July 1863	William Gough Mary Smith	Wm Gooch Mary Smith 💍 1863/5872 Hirini Wanga Mary Smith 💍 1864/4422 William King Ann Smith 💍 1863/7148	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 6 months	In the house of William Gough, Stafford Street, Dunedin	910	Isabella Smith, Mother	18 July 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart
222	13 July 1863	Julius Alberto Jessie Mollison	Julius Alberti Jessie Mollison 💍 1863/5869 John Niven Jessie Mollison 💍 1863/4851	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 9 months	In the house of Julius Alberto, George Street, Dunedin	909		18 July 1863	Rev. D. M. Stuart

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).