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 358

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
82	16 March 1864	William Henry Parker Dinah Scott	William Henry Parker Dinah Scott 💍 1864/6838	Bachelor Spinster	Architect Registrar	29 26	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 6 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages - Dunedin	1251	16 March 1864	John Gillies, Registrar of Marriages - Dunedin
83	18 March 1864	Antrim Paris Jane Insley	Antrim Fair Hutchens Jane Insley 💍 1864/6007	Widower Widow	Servant	30 28	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the [UNCLEAR] Church Dunedin	1573	18 March 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
84	18 March 1864	Garrald Haydick Katherine Jones	Garrald Waydick Catherine Jones 💍 1864/5810	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	32 31	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 6 months	In St Joseph's Church Dunedin	1584	18 March 1864	Revd. D. Moreau
85	19 March 1864	Samuel Kearco Jane Suttie	Samuel Rares Jane Suttie 💍 1864/5638	Bachelor Spinster	Fisherman	32 25	Portobello Portobello	18 months 6 months	In St Andrews Church Walker Street Dunedin	1644	19 March 1864	Revd. D. Mackeljdan
86	19 March 1864	William Stair Mary Brown	William Neil Eliza Brown 💍 1864/6833	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	45 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 14 months	In Knox Church Dunedin	1647	19 March 1864	Revd. Dr. Stuart
87	21 March 1864	John Burton Jessie McKay	Jno Burton Jessie McKay 💍 1864/6661 John Smith Betsey McKay 💍 1864/6951	Bachelor Spinster	Dra[UNCLEAR]man	30 27	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 5 days	In the house of the Revd. Dr. Stuart Dunedin	1330	21 March 1864	Revd. Dr. Stuart
88	21 March 1864	James Ayson Margaret Fleming	James Ayson Margaret Fleming 💍 1864/6211	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	43 34	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns' Manse, Dunedin	1439	21 March 1864	Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns
89	21 March 1864	Charles Edward Hinton Margaret Jane Rathleigh	Charles Edward Wriston Margaret Jane Rashleigh 💍 1864/5992	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Engraver	39 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1508	21 March 1864	Revd. E.G. Edwards
90	22 March 1864	John Chambers Ada Catherine Price	John Chambers Ad Catherine Price 💍 1864/5989	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	42 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1507	22 March 1864	Revd. E.G. Edwards

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).