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 378

District of Dunedin 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
248	4 August 1864	John Gueston Jane Hewart	John Gueston Jane Stewart 💍 1864/3605	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	26 23	Otago Heads Otago Heads	8 yrs. 4 yrs	In the house of the Revd. Thomas Burns Dunedin	1462		4 August 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
249	8 August 1864	Patrick Wobnell Ann McGregor	Patrick O'Connell Ann McGregor 💍 1864/5902	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 2 yrs.	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1535	No person to give consent	8 August 1864	Revd. Edward G. Edwards
250	8 August 1864	John Stewart Margaret McDonald	Jno Stewardson Margaret McDonald 💍 1864/6391	Widower Spinster	Shoemaker	36 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 1 yr.	In the house of John Stewardson Maclaggan Street Dunedin	1375		8 August 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
251	9 August 1864	James Sherry Susan Robertson	James Cherry Susan Robertson 💍 1864/6409	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs. 4 yrs.	In the house of Ronald Robertson Carpenter Russell Street Dunedin	1381	Ronald Robertson Father	9 August 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
252	9 August 1864	Andrew Eadie Wilson Harriet Hall	Andrew Eadie Wilson Harriett Hall 💍 1864/3901	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In the house of Mr. Woolf Isaac Maclaggan Street Dunedin	1463	No person to give consent	9 August 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns
253	9 August 1864	William Shanks Euphemia Wilson	William Shanks Euphemia Wilson 💍 1864/6265	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	24 20	Wakari Maori Hill	14 yrs. 5 yrs.	In the house of Alexander Wilson Ploughman Maori Hill near Dunedin	1464	Alexander Wilson Father	9 August 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns
254	12 August 1864	Urchebald Mason Annie Burnside	Archibald Mason Annie Burnside 💍 1864/5582	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 23	Dunedin Andersons Bay	2 yrs. 3 months	In the house of Robert Brown Andersons Bay	1666	Robert Brown	12 August 1864	Rev. J. H. M'Naughton
255	12 August 1864	Robert Mear Jane McHair	Robert Muir Jane McNair 💍 1864/6400	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	32 26	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 20 months	In the house of John Reid Grant Street Dunedin	1378	John Reid	12 August 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
256	13 August 1864	George Johnson Janet Brown	George Johnson Janet Brown 💍 1864/6397 George Davidson Mary Brown 💍 1864/6080	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	33 34	North East Valley North East Valley	6 months 4 yrs.	In the house of Mrs. Brown North East Valley	1379	Mrs. Brown	13 August 1864	Revd. D. 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).