Intentions to Marry, 1864

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840376, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 388

District of Lampden Quarter ending 31 December 1864

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
328	24 October 1864	James McEubbin Isabella Campbell	James McCubbin Isabella Campbell 💍 1864/3603	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	26 27	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	John Murley's Filluel Street Dunedin	1476		26 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
329	22 October 1864	John Hunter Catherine Walsh	William Hunter Catherine Walch 💍 1864/5682	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 Months 11 yrs	I yrs Chapel Dunedin	1619		24 October 1864	Rev. D. Moreau
330	25 October 1864	John Cameron Catherine Robertson	Jno Cameron Catherine Robertson 💍 1864/6460	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	Knox Church Dunedin	1398		25 December 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
331	26 October 1864	James Black Sarah Jane Bateson	James Black Sarah Jane Bateson 💍 1864/5885	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	27 27	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1550		26 October 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
332	27 October 1864	Bartlett Green Susanne Smith Scott	John Bartlett Green Susanne Smith Scott 💍 1864/5887	Bachelor Spinster	Overseer	30 17	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1551	Abraham Scott, Father	27 October 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
333	27 October 1864	David Bacon Sarah Jane Beck	David Bacon Sarah Jane Beck 💍 1864/5828	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 23	Portobello Portobello	6 yrs 6 months	In the house of Rev. D. Aldred, Portobello	1571	Henry Beck, Father	27 October 1864	Rev. D. Aldred
334	28 October 1864	James Fraser Eliza Phebe Gayford		Bachelor Spinster	Publican	28 17	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2 yrs	In the Independent Chapel, Dunedin	1292	Catherine Taylor, Mother	28 October 1864	Rev. R. Connebee
335	28 October 1864	George Shaw Sarah Petterford	George Skae Sarah Pettiford 💍 1864/6065	Widower Widow	Seaman	40 34	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of James Sterndy Filluel Street Dunedin	1477		28 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
336	29 October 1864	James Dougall Mary Hunter	James McDougall Mary Hunter 💍 1864/6077	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 6 weeks	In the house of Thomas Bennett Duncan Street Dunedin	1481		29 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns

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).