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 374

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
212	8 July 1864	John Sinclair Mary Munro	James Calder Mary Munro 💍 1864/6758	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 19	huneden huneden	2 months 5 yrs	Church Dunedin	1363	No person to give consent	8 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
213	8 July 1864	John Reid Isabella Souness	Jno Reid Isabella Souness 💍 1864/6355	Bachelor Spinster	baker	32 26	hunedin hunedin	1 week 1 week	In the house of Robert Souness Maclaggan Street Dunedin	1363	Robert Souness	8 July 1864	Revd. W. W. Stuart
214	9 July 1864	George Bridgood Mary Ann McHugh	George Bidgood Mary Ann McHugh 💍 1864/5940	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	28 21	hunedin hunedin	3 days 2 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1329		9 July 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
215	11 July 1864	Andrew Lees Ann Campbell	Andrew Lees Ann Campbell 💍 1864/6352	Bachelor Spinster	Printer & Glazier	30 25	hunedin hunedin	3 yrs 3 days	In the house of James Lees Cumberland Street Dunedin	1362	James Lees father	11 July 1864	Rev. W. M. Stuart
216	11 July 1864	Peter O'Laughlin Mary McKnight	Peter O'Loughlin Mary McKinght 💍 1864/5753	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 1 week	In St. Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1606		11 July 1864	Revd. D. Moreau
217	11 July 1864	Matthew Miller Catherine Anderson	Matthew Miller Catharine Anderson 💍 1864/6361 James Jordon Catherine Anderson 💍 1864/5673	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	26 24	hunedin hunedin	4 months 2 weeks	In the house of Matthew Miller York Street Dunedin	1365		11 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
218	11 July 1864	James O'Callaghan Ann Kennedy	Cornelius O'Callaghan Ann Kennedy 💍 1864/3880	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	30 22	hunedin hunedin	2 yrs 2 weeks	In St. Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1607		11 July 1864	Revd. W. Moreau
219	11 July 1864	John Thomson Annie Allsop	John Thomson Annie Allsop 💍 1864/4155	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	25 18	hunedin hunedin	18 months 18 months	In the house of James Edgar George Street Dunedin	1364	Emma Edgar Mother	11 July 1864	Revd. W. M. Stuart
220	12 July 1864	George Bartholomew Purdue Anne Farmer Bambery	George Bartholomew Purdue Ann Farmer Bamberry 💍 1864/6259	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	34 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 month	In the house of the Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns Dunedin	1458	No person [UNCLEAR]	12 July 1864	Revd. Dr. 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).