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 359

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
91	22 March 1864	William Mailland Clara Harris	William Maitland Hoole Clara Harris 💍 1864/5986	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 19	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 15 months	John's Episcopal Church Dunedin	1570	John Harris, Father	22 March 1864	Revd E. G. Edwards
92	22 March 1864	William Parsons Martha Kennedy	William Parsons Martha Kennedy 💍 1864/3702 William Barry Mary Kennedy 💍 1864/7529	Bachelor Spinster	Timber Merchant	26 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the house of Mr. A. Stein, York Place, Dunedin	1440		22 March 1864	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
93	24 March 1864	John McAlister Margaret Anderson	John McAlister Margaret Anderson 💍 1864/6214 John Plimmer Janet Anderson 💍 1864/8539 Joseph Harrison Margaret Anderson 💍 1864/6634	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	38 29	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 5 months	In the Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns' Manse, Dunedin	1440		24 March 1864	Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns
94	24 March 1864	James John Sims Phillis Jones	James John Sims Phillis Jones 💍 1864/5995	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	21 months 1 year	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1509		24 March 1864	Revd. Edward G. Edwards
95	26 March 1864	Francis George Barr Annie Wallace		Bachelor Spinster	Draman	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 8 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin			26 March 1864	Revd. E. G. Edwards
96	26 March 1864	Robert Sangster Martha Grieg	Robert Taylor Martha McGregor 💍 1864/6664	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	22 27	North East Valley Dunedin	2 years 18 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1331		26 March 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
97	26 March 1864	James Thompson Ellen Wilson	James Thompson Ellen Wilson 💍 1864/6217 Walter Thompson Margaret Wilson 💍 1864/5729	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	27 23	Dunedin Dunedin	21 months 5 months	In the house of Mrs. Ross, Dunedin	1442		26 March 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
98	28 March 1864	Thomas Andrews Bridelia Mulheran	Thomas Andrews Bildelia Mulrenan 💍 1864/5813	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	30 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Joseph's Chapel, Dunedin	1585	No person to give consent	28 March 1864	Revd. D. Moreau
99	28 March 1864	Joseph Gibbs Mary Ann Brown	Joseph Gibbs Mary Ann Brown 💍 1864/5670 John Smith Mary Ann Brown 💍 1865/5312	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	30 19	Port Chalmers Portobello	8 months 1 year	In the house of the Revd. Mr. Johnstone, Port Chalmers	1685	Barbara Treple, Mother	28 March 1864	Revd. Mr. Johnstone

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).