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 350

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
10	6 January 1864	William Neil Eliza Brown	William Neil Eliza Brown 💍 1864/6833 Henry William Smith Elizth Brown 💍 1865/4751	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 1 week	In the office of the Registrar of marriages Dunedin	1284		6 January 1864	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
11	7 January 1864	Joseph Armitage Christina McRae	Joseph Armitage Christina McRae 💍 1864/6607	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 6 months	In the house of James Sutherland and William Sutherland Cumberland Street - Dunedin	310		7 January 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
12	7 January 1864	Israel Dickson Emma Blisset	Charles Dickson Emma Blissett 💍 1864/6059	Bachelor Widow	Carter	25 30	Dunedin Dunedin	1½ years 1½ years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1494		7 January 1864	Revd. E. G. Edwards
13	7 January 1864	John Bowman Julia Anna Jennings	John Bowman Julia Ann Jennings 💍 1864/6160	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 2 year	In the house of Mr. Philip Jennings, Bargill Street Dunedin	1420	Thomas Horeken Jennings, Father	7 January 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns
14	11 January 1864	Joseph Byrne Elizabeth Ardag	Joseph Byrne Elizabeth McKay 💍 1864/6604	Bachelor Widow	Housekeeper	35 35	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 1 year	In the house of Elizabeth Ardag Great King Street Dunedin	1309		11 January 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
15	12 January 1864	Angus McRae Jane McLean	Angus McRae Grace McLean 💍 1864/6610	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel keeper	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 18 months	In the Bath Hotel, George Street Dunedin	1311		12 January 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
16	13 January 1864	Hugh Beggs Elizabeth Hanes	Hugh Beggs Elizabeth Stenes 💍 1864/5786	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 9 days	In the Roman Catholic Chapel Dunedin	1376		13 January 1864	Revd. D. Moreau
17	15 January 1864	Donald Mcbellar Margaret Robertson	Donald McKellar Margaret Robertson 💍 1864/6529	Widower Spinster	Engraver	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the house of Donald McKellar Duncan Street Dunedin	1281		15 January 1864	Revd. Richard Connebee
18	19 January 1864	James Houston Milligan Margaret Smeaton	James Houstin Milligan Margaret Smeaton 💍 1864/6616	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor and Clothier	22 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 3 years	In the house of Mrs. Janet Smeaton Great King Street Dunedin	1313	Janet Smeaton, Mother	19 January 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).