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 353

District of [unknown] 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
37	5 February 1864	John Grant Margaret Munroe	John Grant Margaret Munro 💍 1864/6184	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 3 months	In the house of Andrew Hutchenga	1428		5 February 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
38	6 February 1864	Thomas Stark Helen Brodie	Thomas Stark Helen Brodie 💍 1864/6178	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 11 days	In the house of John Millar	1426		6 February 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
39	8 February 1864	James Boyd Mary Burns	James Boyd Mary Burns 💍 1864/6181	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 15 months	In the house of David Gardener	1427		8 February 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
40	8 February 1864	Laurence Peter Stevens Bridget Ryan	John Stengan Bridget Ryan 💍 1864/6969	Bachelor Spinster	Pilot	29 21	Tiroa head Port Chalmers	1 year 1 year	In the house of Alexander Brebner	1318		8 February 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
41	10 February 1864	John Isaac Adams Margaret Ward	John Isaac Adams Sarah Pink 💍 1864/3666	Widower Spinster	Plumber	43 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 9 months	In the School house at Andersons Bay			10 February 1864	Rev. D. Machaughton
42	10 February 1864	Joseph Harrison Margaret Anderson	Joseph Harrison Margaret Anderson 💍 1864/6634	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	27 25	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 3 months	In the house of Rev. D.M. Stuart	1320		10 February 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart
43	12 February 1864	William Perry Mary Miller	Wm Perry Mary Millar 💍 1864/5664	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 20	Port Chalmers Mount Pleasant	7 months 4 years	In the house of John Miller	1633	John Miller, Father	12 February 1864	Rev. William Johnston
44	13 February 1864	William Cameron Jessie Robertson	William Cameron Jessie Robertson 💍 1864/6187	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	30 24	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 13 months	In the European Hotel	1429		13 February 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
45	18 February 1864	James Wilson Helen Gray McLeod	James Wilson Helen Gray McLeod 💍 1864/6193	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 26	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 8 months	In the house of James Wilson	1431		18 February 1864	Rev. 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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).