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 357

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
73	9 March 1864	Edward Dickinson Sarah Williams		Bachelor Spinster	Gold melter	34 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the Episcopal Church	1564	Jane Barr, mother	9 March 1864	Revd E.G. Edwards
74	10 March 1864	John Guthrie Euphemia Snaddon	John Guthrie Euphemia Snadon 💍 1864/6208	Bachelor Spinster	Sailmaker	21 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the house of Charles Smith, Bargell Street, Dunedin	1438	Euphemia Snaddon, mother	10 March 1864	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
75	11 March 1864	David Kirk Kate Dickson	David Kirk Kate Dickson 💍 1864/6655	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	24 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	21 months 21 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1328		11 March 1864	Revd J.M. Stuart
76	12 March 1864	William Grigg Elizabeth Grogan	William Tripp Elizabeth Grogan 💍 1864/5807	Bachelor Spinster	Sighterer	32 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 1 year	In the Catholic Chapel Dunedin	1583		12 March 1864	Revd D. Moreau
77	14 March 1864	Alexander Lecky Mary Reid	Alexander Lecky Mary Reid 💍 1864/6205	Widower Spinster	Miner	47 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 2 years	In the house of James Bradshaw, St. Andrews Street, Dunedin	1437		14 March 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
78	14 March 1864	William Richard Phoebe Rathbone Lee	William Richard Jackson Phoebe Rathbone Lee 💍 1864/5983	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	37 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 18 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1505		14 March 1864	Revd. E.G. Edwards
79	14 March 1864	Henry Morwiteh Sophia Lazarus	Henry Morwitch Sophia Lazarus 💍 1864/6511	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	29 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 year	In the house of Mr. H. Nathan, North East Valley	1275		14 March 1864	Rev. Henry Isaacs
80	15 March 1864	William Graham Maria Roster	William Graham Maria Rossiter 💍 1864/4986	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	28 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 months 15 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin				By the Officer of Marriages
81	16 March 1864	William Charles Roberts Emma Knowles	William Charles Roberts Emma Knowles 💍 1864/6004	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	33 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1512		16 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).