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 365

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
140	4 May 1864	William Homan Ronayne Maria Jane Bell	William Housan Mayne Maria Jane Bell 💍 1864/5783	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	29 22	Dunedin Dunedin	5 months 22 yrs.	In the house of the	1341		May 4 1864	Revd. C. Moreau
141	4 May 1864	Alexander McKinnon Jessie Nichol	Alexander McKinnon Jessie Nichol 💍 1864/6293	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 3 days		1342	William Nichol, Father, Walker Street, Dunedin	May 4 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
142	4 May 1864	Josiah Boyer Margeretta Ballourin Lane	Josiah Boyer Tarbock Margaret Balwin Lane 💍 1864/6299	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	30 21	Dunedin Dunedin	15 months 2 yrs.	In the house of	1344		May 4 1864	Revd. D.M. Stuart
143	5 May 1864	John Rooney Hannah Angelica Edwards	John Rorney Hannah Angili Dumars 💍 1864/6568	Bachelor Spinster	Member of Police	34 19	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 18 months	In the house of	1297	Adam Summers, father, Arthur Street, Dunedin	May 5 1864	Revd. J. Aldred
144	6 May 1864	Louis Ruddle Maria Freiburg		Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yrs.	In Knox's Church, Dunedin	1343		May 6 1864	Revd. C.M. Stuart
145	6 May 1864	Thomas Henry Davidson Isabella McRae Browne	Thomas Henry Davidson Isabella McNay Brown 💍 1864/5617	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	26 26	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	9 months 8 days	In the manse of	1337		May 6 1864	Revd. Wm. Johnston
146	6 May 1864	James Halls Caroline Hellier	James Walls Caroline Helier 💍 1864/5588 James Devin Caroline Keating 💍 1864/4449	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	26 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr. 9 months 1 year	In the house of George Adams, Grant Street, Dunedin	1647		May 6 1864	Revd. C. Murklyhn
147	6 May 1864	John Haddy Conipung Caroline McVicar		Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 24	Roslyn Dunedin	6 yrs. 7 months	In the house of Mrs. McVicar, Russell Street, Dunedin	1448		May 6 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
148	9 May 1864	David Eglin Mary McGregor	David Eglin Mary McGregor 💍 1864/6535 James Taylor Mary McGregor 💍 1864/6637	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	28 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the house of the Revd. R. Connebee, George Street, Dunedin	1284		May 9 1864	Revd. R. Connebee

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).