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 353

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
306	1 October 1863	William Mitchell Janet Gibson	William Mitchell Janet Gibson 💍 1863/5103 William Harris Anne Gibson 💍 1863/3760	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1197	No person required to give consent	1 October 1863	Rev E. G. Edwards
307	1 October 1863	Richard Harold Craigie Isabella Marwick	Richard Harrold Craigie Isabella Marwick 💍 1863/5106	Widower Spinster	Settler	34 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1198		1 October 1863	Rev Edward G Edwards
308	1 October 1863	William Henry Arrow Elizabeth Diack	William Henry Arrow Elizabeth Diack 💍 1863/5133	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 years 35 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 6 years	In the house of John Yourland, Moray Place, Dunedin	1208		1 October 1863	Rev Donald McLejohn
309	2 October 1863	John Porteous Isabella Phillips	John Porteous Isabella Phillips 💍 1863/5130	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 2 months	In the house of John Duncan, Porteous Street, Dunedin	1207		2 October 1863	Rev Thomas Burns D.D.
310	3 October 1863	George Campbell Jane Adams	George Campbell Jane Adams 💍 1863/3709	Bachelor Widow	Lighterman	39 years 40 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin	1203		3 October 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
311	3 October 1863	Alexander McLachlan Sarah Campbell	Alexr McLachlan Sarah Campbell 💍 1863/5115 Murdoch McDonald Sarah Campbell 💍 1863/3736	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	34 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 1 month	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1201		3 October 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
312	5 October 1863	Jesse Bott Sarah Bell	Jesse Bott Sarah Bell 💍 1863/5139	Bachelor Spinster	Woodburner	23 years 27 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	18 months 10 months	In the house of George Bott, Port Chalmers	1210		5 October 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
313	6 October 1863	Frederick Hughes Margaret Hunter	Frederick Lilly Agnes Hunter 💍 1864/7723	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 8 months	In the house of Frederick Hughes, George Street, Dunedin	1202		6 October 1863	Rev D. Moreau
314	6 October 1863	Edward Brandon Parsons Mary Geake Arthur	Edward Brendon Parsons Mary Geake Arthur 💍 1863/4480	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 2 months	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin	1305		6 October 1863	Rev Isaac Harding

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).