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 361

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
396	23 December 1863	Peter Heinrich Buck Emily Jones	Peter Henry Bucksath Emily Jones 💍 1863/5491	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	32 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 months 16 months	In the Wesleyan Chapel, Dunedin	949		23 December 1863	Rev E. G. Edwards
397	24 December 1863	John Ireland Cornelia Lavinia Lucretia Bompiani	Jno Presland Cornelia Lavinia Lucretia Bompiani 💍 1863/5512	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	23 months 2 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	956		24 December 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
398	24 December 1863	Joseph Morgan Mapey Louisa Maria Allen Ridgway	Joseph Morgan Massey Louise Maria Allen Ridgway 💍 1864/6502	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In Glen Cottage, Dunedin	1272/1864		24 December 1863	Rev Isaac Harding
399	24 December 1863	Daniel Nuttall Jane Robertson	Daniel Nuttall Jane Robertson 💍 1863/5500	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 years 21 years	Portobello North East Harbour	4 years 2 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	952		24 December 1863	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
400	26 December 1863	Michael Pagan Agnes Harvey	Michael Fagan Agnes Harvey 💍 1863/5503	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 2 months	In the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin	953		26 December 1863	Rev D. Moreau
401	26 December 1863	Harry William Barber Harriet Rawlings Mould	Harry William Barber Harriet Rawlings Mould 💍 1863/5509	Bachelor Spinster	Post Office Clerk	24 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 10 days	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	955		26 December 1863	Rev E. G. Edwards
402	26 December 1863	Samuel Pinder Mary Ingram		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	40 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 10 months	In the house of Mary Ingram, David Street, Dunedin	1306		26 December 1863	Rev D. M. Stuart
403	28 December 1863	John Darnic Mary Jamieson	John Damico Mary Jamieson 💍 1863/5518	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	21 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 13 months	In the Roman Catholic Chapel, Dunedin	958	Sarah Jamieson, Mother	29 December 1863	Rev D. Moreau
404	28 December 1863	William Huson Day Eleanor Elizabeth Hayes	William Huson Pay Eleanor Elizabeth Hayes 💍 1863/5527	Widower Spinster	Leather Merchant	35 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 12 months	In the Registrar of Marriages Office, Dunedin	961		28 December 1863	Registrar of Marriages

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).