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 345

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
51	17 August 1863	Joseph Crosbie Janet Staward Clarke	Joseph Crosbie Janet Stewart Clarke 💍 1863/4075	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 6 months	In the house of the Revd Dr Burns, Dunedin	1473	No person to give consent	17 August 1863	Rev Thomas Burns, D.D.
52	18 August 1863	John Robsoll Priscilla Bulwer	John Ropall Priscilla Bulwer 💍 1863/4371	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 months 4 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1369		18 August 1863	Rev Edward G Edwards
53	20 August 1863	Thomas Moodie Helen Inglis Brown	Thomas Moodie Helen Inglis Brown 💍 1863/4221	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	27 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 14 years	In the house of James Brown, Springbank, Dunedin	1421	James Brown, Father	20 August 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
54	21 August 1863	Adolph Beissel Jane Walker	Adolph Beissel Jane Walker 💍 1863/4398 John Muir Jane Walker 💍 1863/4135	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist	24 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 18 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1378		21 August 1863	Rev E. G. Edwards
55	21 August 1863	Andrew Simpson Mary Kerr	Andrew Simpson Mary Kerr 💍 1863/3432	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	33 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 weeks 9 months	In the house of John Wharen, Packermaker, Dunedin	1165		21 August 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
56	21 August 1863	Joseph Llofs Esther Lewis	Joseph Moss Esther Lewis 💍 1863/4428	Bachelor Spinster	Optician	27 years 18 years	Dunedin Galloway Place, Dunedin	18 months 12 months	In the house of Lewis Lewis, Boarding House Keeper	1308	Lewis Lewis, father	21 August 1863	Rev David Isaac
57	21 August 1863	Benjamin Gore Mary Murphy	Richard Benjamin Gore Mary Murphy 💍 1863/4269	Bachelor Spinster	Meteorologist	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 8 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1417		21 August 1863	Reverend Edward G. Edwards
58	24 August 1863	Francis Beissel Carolyne Wilhelmina Gohring	Francis Edward Beissel Caroline Wilhemina Gohring 💍 1863/4585	Bachelor Spinster	Tobacconist	21 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1340		24 August 1863	Rev Edward G Edwards
59	26 August 1863	Frederick Bleator Mary Gleeson	Frederick Reid Mary Cleaver 💍 1863/6781	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 1 year	In Knox Church, Dunedin		none to consent	26 August 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).