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 380

District of [UNCLEAR]under 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
266	23 August 1864	James adain dawries Richmond margaret Gray	James Adair Lawrie Richmond Margaret Gray 💍 1864/6089	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	25 25	Dunedin dunedin	15 yrs 12 yrs	In the house of the Rev. thomas Burns hl.hl. Dunedin	1465		23 Aug 1864	Rev. thomas Burns hl.hl.
267	23 August 1864	Alexander blark Mary Gillied	Alexander Clark Mary Gillies 💍 1864/6487 Alexander Lecky Mary Reid 💍 1864/6205 Alexander Adam Mary Bain 💍 1864/4062	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	36 38	Dunedin Wunedin	2 weeks 4 months	In the office of the Registrar of marriages Dinneclin	1266		23 Augt 1864	Registrar of marriages, Dunedin
268	25 August 1864	George How oliza aitken	George How Eliza Aitken 💍 1864/4095	Widower Widow	Farmer	29 28	Wunodin Wunedin	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of marriages Dunedin	1267		25 Augt 1864	Registrar of marriages Anne
269	26 August 1864	Thomas Lawrie Catherine M. Donald		Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 9 months	In the house of Thomas Lawrie George Street Dunedin	1385		26 Augt 1864	Revd W. M. Stuart
270	26 August 1864	Samuel Cyres martha Faisher	Samuel Eyres Martha Fisher 💍 1864/6415	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 25	Wunedin Dunedin	9 months 1 yr	In the house of Mrs Fisher Gt-thing Street Dunedin	1383		26 Augt. 1864	Revd W. m. Stuart
271	27 august 1864	Francis Henry Iran Fees Fleming	Francis Henry Frances Fleming 💍 1864/5910	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 19	Dunodin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1539	No person to give Consent	27 Augt 1864	Revd E. G. Edwards
272	29 august 1864	George Richards Johanna Pogerty	George Richards Johanna Fogerty 💍 1864/5913 George Richards Elizabeth Powell 💍 1864/7114	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	22 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1540		29 Augt. 1864	Revd E.G. Edwards
273	29 August 1864	James Hullon Elizabeth Barwick	James Hutton Elizabeth Barwick 💍 1864/5916	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 30	Dunedin dunedin	18 months 1 yr	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1541		29 Augt. 1864	Revd. E. g Edwards
274	29 August 1864	William Daylor Sillas Olwald		Bachelor Spinster	Painter	24 22	Dunedin Wunedin	8 months 1 yr.	In the house of John mcheil Kattray Street hunedin	1384		29 Augt 1864	Revd h0. M Stuart

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).