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 354

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
46	13 February 1864	William Bell Catherine Ahunt	William Bell Caroline Hunt 💍 1864/6018	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	24 18	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 1 year	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1448	no person to give consent	13 February 1864	Revd Edward G Edwards
47	15 February 1864	William Walker Mary Cameron	William Walker Mary Cameron 💍 1864/6190	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the house of Richard Carruthers Richmond hill Dunedin	1430		15 February 1864	Revd Thomas Burns
48	16 February 1864	Thomas Edmond Whittree Marion Thomson Houstie	Thomas Edmund Ochiltree Marion Thompson Hastie 💍 1864/6021	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Accountant	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 weeks	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1499		16 February 1864	Revd Edward G Edwards
49	16 February 1864	Nicholas John Honeys Johanna Mebrath		Bachelor Spinster	Hotel keeper	26 21	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	2 years 1 year	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Dunedin	1580		16 February 1864	Revd D Moreau
50	18 February 1864	James Howorth Jane Bowman Brebner	James Howarth Jane Bowman Brebner 💍 1864/6640	Bachelor Spinster	farmer	26 26	Green Island Green Island	11 years 10 months	In the house of James Howorth Esqre Walton Park Green Island	1322		18 February 1864	Revd J He M Naughton
51	19 February 1864	William Davidson Ann Baillie	William Davidson Ann Baillie 💍 1864/6196	Bachelor Spinster	mason	28 32	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 1 year	In the house of William Davidson Stuart Street Dunedin	1432		19 February 1864	Revd Thomas Burns
52	20 February 1864	James Saylor Mary McGregor	James Taylor Mary McGregor 💍 1864/6637 Robert Taylor Martha McGregor 💍 1864/6664 David Eglin Mary McGregor 💍 1864/6535	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	18 18	Dunedin North East Valley Dunedin	3 years 2 years	In the house of the Revd Dr Stuart George Street Dunedin	1321	James Saylor Father Hugh McGregor Father	20 February 1864	Revd D M Stuart
53	20 February 1864	George Henry Paterson Margaret Williamson	George Hay Paterson Margaret Williamson 💍 1864/6643	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	28 20	Sunnyside near Dunedin Sunnyside Dunedin	3 months 14 [UNCLEAR]	In the house of William Sheddan Kaikosai Store Sunnyside Waikorae District	1323	no person to give consent	20 February 1864	Revd D. M. Stuart
54	20 February 1864	William Graham Mary Ann Mauchin	Wm Graham Mary Ann Manchin 💍 1864/5579	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Dunedin Andersons bay	10 days 1 month	In the house of William Inglis Burnside Andersons bay	1665		20 February 1864	Revd J He McNaughton

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).