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 382

District of [UNCLEAR] Quarter ending 30 September 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
284	14 September 1864	Richard Sweetman Eliza Hannah Gregg	Richard Sweetman Howard Eliza Hannah Gregg 💍 1864/6496	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 1/4 yrs 1 1/4 yrs	By the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1270	14 September 1864	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
285	15 September 1864	Neil McHutchison Ann McKinnon		Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	30 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 1/2 yrs 2 1/2 yrs	Synagogue Dunedin	1268	15 September 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
286	15 September 1864	Henry Green Agnes Sinclair	Henry Green Agnes Sinclair 💍 1864/6436	Bachelor Spinster	Letter	22 22	N. E. Valley Dunedin	6 yrs 6 yrs	Knox Church Dunedin	1380	15 September 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
287	17 September 1864	Gavin Jennings Emma Biggs	Edwin Jennings Emma Biggs 💍 1864/6499	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	28 23	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 9 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1271	17 September 1864	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
288	19 September 1864	George Hughes Janet Kenningburgh	George Hughes Janet Kinniburgh 💍 1864/6427	Widower Spinster	Mariner	43 32	Dunedin Dunedin	5 weeks 5 weeks	Knox Church Dunedin	1381	19 September 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
289	19 September 1864	Dennis Heenan Maria Phillips	Dennis Heenan Maria Phillips 💍 1864/6433	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	32 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 4 months	In the British Hotel, George Street Dunedin	1389	19 September 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
290	19 September 1864	George Ashewell Lavinia Hopkins	George Ashwell Lavinia Watkins 💍 1864/5652	Bachelor Widow	Boatman	23 22	Otago Heads Otago Heads	2 yrs 2 months	In the Church at Otago Heads	1629	19 September 1864	J. F. Riemenschneider
291	19 September 1864	Thomas Bollen Julia Ashe	Thomas Collen Julie Ashe 💍 1864/6586	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	21 22	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 3 days	In the Wesleyan Church Dunedin	1303
292	22 September 1864	Charles William Bravery Marie Jane Webb		Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 7 yrs	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1345	22 September 1864	Robt. L. Stanford

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).