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 355

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
55	23 February 1864	Micheal Harvey Mary Ann Buckley	Michael Harvey Mary Buckley 💍 1864/5801	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the Catholic Chapel Dunedin	1581		25 February 1864	Revd. D. Moreau
56	25 February 1864	Joseph James Downing Mary Ronson Miller	Joseph James Downing Mary Ronson Millar 💍 1864/6505	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 23	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 4 days	In the house of James Spensley Maclaggan Street	1273
57	25 February 1864	Henry Wise Elizabeth Isabella Walker	Henry Wise Elizabeth Isabella Walker 💍 1864/6199	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	28 20	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 3 days	In the house of Henry Wise Dowling Street	1433	No person to give consent	25 February 1864	Revd. Isaac Harding
58	26 February 1864	Benjamin Saunders Sarah Ellen Gaylor	Benjamin Saunders Sarah Ellen Taylor 💍 1864/6024	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1500		26 February 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
59	26 February 1864	William Hansford Ellen White	William Hargraves Ellen White 💍 1864/6027	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 2 years	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1561	Martha Smith, Mother	26 February 1864	Revd. Edward Edwards
60	26 February 1864	Alexander Allan Helen Finlayson	Alexander Allan Helen Finley 💍 1864/4116	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	25 23	Dunedin Roslyn, Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In the house of Daniel Mobeckindale Roslyn Dunedin	1435		26 February 1864	Revd. Edward J. Edwards
61	27 February 1864	John Dolan Ann O'Brian	John Dolan Ann O'Brian 💍 1864/5804	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 15 months	In the Catholic Chapel Dunedin	1582		27 February 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
62	27 February 1864	Alexander Bisset Mary Jane Allen	Alexander Bisset Mary Jane Allen 💍 1864/4134	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	In the house of the Rev. Thomas Burns D.D. Dunedin	1434		27 February 1864	Revd. C. Moreau
63	1 March 1864	James Valentine Hellen Gulland	James Valentine Hellen Gulland 💍 1864/6646	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 18 months	In the Hospital Gate house Dunedin	1314		1 March 1864	Revd. C.M. Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).