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 361

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
104	1 April 1864	George Henry Hughes Elizabeth McCondies	George Henry Hughes Elizabeth Caroline McLellan 💍 1864/5998	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 3 yrs	the Episcopal Church Dunedin	570	1 April 1864	Revd E.G. Edwards
105	1 April 1864	Michael Mooney Mary Ford	Michael Mooney Mary Ford 💍 1864/5762	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St. Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1587	1 April 1864	Revd A. Moreau
106	5 April 1864	Dirk Batharinus Wiegman Louisa Mills	Dirk Catherimis Eigenau Louisa Mills 💍 1864/6001	Bachelor Spinster	Dealer	30 23	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr. 8 Months	the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1511	5 April 1864	Revd E. G Edwards
107	9 April 1864	William Gray Margaret Annon	William Gray Margaret Annon 💍 1864/6841	Bachelorship Spinster	Carpenter	28 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1257	9 April 1864	Registrar of marriages
108	9 April 1864	James Moran Mary Anne Been	James Moran Mary Anne Kean 💍 1864/5768	Bachelor Spinster	Surveyor	38 22	Dunedin Dunedin	5 Months 4 Months	St. Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1590	9 April 1864	Revd A. Moreau
109	9 April 1864	John Williamson Emma Eliza Vale	John Williamson Emma Eliza Vale 💍 1864/6844	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	15 Months 2 Years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1258	9 April 1864	Registrar of marriages
110	12 April 1864	James Downs Mary Nixon	James Downs Mary Nixon 💍 1864/5771 Joseph Bonnington Mary Nixon 💍 1864/8079	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 18 Months	St. Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1591	12 April 1864	Revd A. Moreau
111	12 April 1864	Ralph Moir Maria Larkin	Ralph Moir Maria Larkin 💍 1864/6223 James Muir Mary Larkin 💍 1864/6175	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	37 28	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 2 yrs.	In the House of the Revd Thomas Burns Dunedin	144/144	12 April 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
112	12 April 1864	John Turnbull Margaret Brown	John Turnbull Margaret Brown 💍 1864/6220	Bachelor Spinster	Agriculturalist	27 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 Months	In the House of the Revd Thomas Burns D.D. Dunedin	1443	12 April 1864	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.

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).