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 355

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
324	20 October 1863	William Jamison Jane Jamison	William Jamieson Jane Jamieson 💍 1863/5392 William Whitham Jane Robinson 💍 1863/5720	Bachelor Widow	Clerk	28 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 5 months	In the house of William Jamison, Dunedin	1094		20 October 1863	Rev Donald Meiklejohn
325	21 October 1863	James Harris Mary Costigan	James Harris Mary Costigan 💍 1863/4815	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	24 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin	1219	Supposed consent given	21 October 1863	Rev D. Moreau
326	22 October 1863	John Niven Jessie Mollison	John Niven Jessie Mollison 💍 1863/4851 Julius Alberti Jessie Mollison 💍 1863/5869	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	In the house of Agnes Mollison, Shoemaker, Princes Street, Dunedin	1109	Agnes Mollison, mother	22 October 1863	Rev Thomas Burns
327	23 October 1863	John Wishart Ann Bogue Scott	John Wishart Anna Boyue Scott 💍 1863/5422	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	In the house of John Briggs, Duncan Street, Dunedin	1104	No person to give consent	23 October 1863	Rev Thomas Burns
328	23 October 1863	William Smith Isabella Leal	William Smith Isabella Leal 💍 1863/5004	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	26 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 6 months	In the Caledonian Hotel, Dunedin	1162	No person to give consent	23 October 1863	Rev Donald Meiklejohn
329	24 October 1863	John Watkins Rowe Agnes Johnston	John Watkins Rowe Agnes Johnston 💍 1863/5398	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	41 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the house of John Watkins Rowe, High Street, Stafford Street, Dunedin	1096	Reave John Watkins Rowe, father	24 October 1863	Rev Thomas Burns
330	26 October 1863	Allan Gale Agnes Dickie	Allan Galt Agnes Dickie 💍 1863/5401	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	24 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 9 months	In the house of Allan Gale, Forres Street, Dunedin	1097		26 October 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
331	27 October 1863	Daniel Anderson Agnes Heaste	Daniel Anderson Agnes Hastie 💍 1863/5404	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	26 years 26 years	Dunedin Port Chalmers	3 days 8 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1098		27 October 1863	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
332	29 October 1863	Stuart Lyell Anne Hysseltune Winter	David Stuart Lyell Anne Heseltine Winter 💍 1863/4857	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Teller	24 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1.5 years 1.5 years	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1111		29 October 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 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).