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 376

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
230	18 July 1864	John Forrester Henrietta Taylor	John Forrester Henrietta Taylor 💍 1864/6367	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman	21 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 6 months	In the House of Thomas Andrew Royal Terrace Dunedin	1367		18 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
231	18 July 1864	Daniel Haynes Margaret Miller	James Brand Margaret Miller 💍 1864/5111	Bachelor Spinster	Sleeper	30 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the House of Alexander Miller Sunnyside near Dunedin	1299		18 July 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns
232	19 July 1864	James Sutherland Isabella Lillie Parkes	James Sutherland Isabella Lilly Parker 💍 1864/6373	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 25	Port Chalmers Dunedin	5 days 3 days	In Knox Church Dunedin	1369		19 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
233	19 July 1864	Joseph Anderson Mary Rowntree	Joseph Anderson Mary Rountree 💍 1864/6550 Peter Anderson Mary White 💍 1864/6388	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	26 20	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 3 yrs.	In the House of Walter Frederick Edusbasson Steven Street Dunedin	1290	Walter Basson Rowntree Father	19 July 1864	Revd. R. Connebee
234	20 July 1864	John Robertson Topling Margaret Maria Redden	John Robertson Jopling Margaret Maria Redden 💍 1864/3642	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	31 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1533		20 July 1864	Revd. E. G. Edwards
235	20 July 1864	James Wylie Thomson Sarah Jane Marshall	James Wyllie Thomson Sarah Jane Marshall 💍 1864/3874	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 18	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the House of John Marshall York Place Dunedin	1401	John Marshall Father	20 July 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns
236	23 July 1864	William Dryborough Jane Cameron	Wm Dryborough Jane Cameron 💍 1864/6379 William Walker Mary Cameron 💍 1864/6190	Widower Spinster	Warder Hospital	32 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs. 1 year	In the House of William Dryborough Sunnyside near Dunedin	1371		23 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
237	25 July 1864	John Carey Mary Ann Strong Richardson	John Carey Mary Ann Strong Richardson 💍 1864/6577	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 3 days	Wesleyan Church Dunedin	1300		25 July 1864	Revd. J. Aldred
238	25 July 1864	Charles Ford Watkins Sarah Savage	Charles Ford Watkins Sarah Savage 💍 1864/5904	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	24 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 2 yrs.	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1536	Edward Savage Father	25 July 1864	Revd. E. G. Edwards

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).