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 367

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
158	20 May 1864	William Andrew Grooper Elizabeth Hempseed	Wm Andrew Groves Elizabeth Hempsend 💍 1864/5620	Bachelor Spinster	Navy	21 16 yrs	Sawyers Bay Sawyers Bay	2 yrs 1 yr	In the house of the Revd Mr Johnston	1638	Robert Hempseed, father	20 May 1864	Rev. William Johnston
159	23 May 1864	Francis Meehan Catherine Meagher	Francis Sheenan Catherine Meagher 💍 1864/5732	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 2 weeks	Chapel Dunedin	1599		23 May 1864	Revd D. Moreau
160	23 May 1864	Joseph Longhurst Margaret Isabella Harnock	Joseph Longhurst Gregory Margaret Isabella Warnock 💍 1864/6541	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	27 24	Dunedin Gregory Hanover Street Dunedin	3 yrs 1 yr	In the house of Joseph Longhurst Gregory Hanover Street Dunedin	1286		23 May 1864	Rev. J. Bennebe
161	25 May 1864	Evan Hughes Ellen Morris	Evan Hughes Ellen Morris 💍 1864/5960	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 6 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1579		25 May 1864	Rev. J.S. Edwards
162	25 May 1864	John Mann Jane Currie	John Main Jane Currie 💍 1864/6238	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	30 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 9 months	In the house of John Wilson London Street Dunedin	1450		25 May 1864	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
163	25 May 1864	John Tennant Elizabeth Polledge	Jno Tennant Elizabeth Colledge 💍 1864/6317	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr 2 yrs	In the house of Joshua Polledge Russell Street Dunedin	1356		25 May 1864	Revd. @.M. Stuart
164	28 May 1864	Charles Robert Houlding Annie Maria Kennell	Charles Robert Goulding Annie Maria Purnell 💍 1864/6853	Widower Spinster	Cordial Manufacturer	38 30	Port Chalmers Port Chalmers	2 yrs 1½ yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1202		28 May 1864	Registrar of Marriages
165	30 May 1864	James Addie Steadman Jane Duff Dickie	James Adie Steadman Jane Duff Dickie 💍 1864/6320	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 26	Dunedin Dunedin	14 yrs 1 yr	In Knox Church Dunedin	1357		30 May 1864	Revd. D.M. Stuart
166	30 May 1864	Robert Pryde Bridget McGrath	Robert Pryde Bridget McGrath 💍 1864/6241	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In the Manse of the Revd. Thomas Burns D.D. Dunedin	1457		30 May 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).