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 357

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
360	27 November 1863	James Henderson Georgia Smith	James Henderson Georgina Smith 💍 1863/5539	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	26 years 21 years	Caversham Caversham	3 weeks 3 weeks	In the house of James Harder, Caversham	965		27 November 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
361	27 November 1863	David Lyall Sarah McIntosh	David Lyall Sarah McIntosh 💍 1863/5530	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	34 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the house of David Lyall, Maclaggan Street, Dunedin	962		27 November 1863	Rev D. Stuart
362	27 November 1863	Godfrey William Litchfield Mary Ann Rothwell		Bachelor Spinster	House dealer	36 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 15 months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin	963		27 November 1863	Rev D. Moreau
363	30 November 1863	Alfred Edward Mitchell Ellen Honnessay	Alfred Edward Mitchell Ellen Henessey 💍 1863/5533	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 14 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin	968		30 November 1863	Rev D. Moreau
364	2 December 1863	James Shumbles Helen Hayes	James Stumbles Ellen Hayes 💍 1863/5548	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	26 years 26 years	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	2 years 2 years	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin	973		2 December 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
365	4 December 1863	John Paterson Matilda Laing	Jno Paterson Christina Laing 💍 1863/5563	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	27 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 3 weeks	In the house of William Brown, Brown Street, Dunedin	969		5 December 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
366	5 December 1863	Donald John McDonald Isabella McLucen	Donald Jno McDonald Isabella McQueen 💍 1863/5545	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	33 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of the Rev D. M. Stuart, Dunedin	970		7 December 1863	Rev E. G. Edwards
367	7 December 1863	Thomas George Betts Jane Sophia Hartwright	Thomas George Betts Victoria Jane Sophia Mary Cartwright 💍 1863/5554	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	35 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1332		8 December 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
368	8 December 1863	William Sumner Cupremed Campbell Wilson	Wm Turner Euphemia Campbell Wilson 💍 1863/4561	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	25 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 3 years	In the house of William Wilson, George Street, Dunedin		William Wilson, Father

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).