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 371

District of [UNCLEAR] 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
194	23 June 1864	Charles Nunn Mary Ann Thomas	Charles Nunn Mary Ann Thomas 💍 1864/5974	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 24	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 18 months	Episcopal Church	1322		23 June 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
195	23 June 1864	John Rafferty Bridget Broderick	John Rafferty Bridget Broderick 💍 1864/5747	Widower Spinster	Clerical	32 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yr	In the house of the Resi[UNCLEAR] Althorp	1604		24 June 1864	Rev. A. Moreau
196	23 June 1864	George Johnston Margaret McNish	George Johnstone Margaret McNish 💍 1864/6343	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	31 22	Mawhera Quay Hokitika	18 months 18 months	In Home	1359		24 June 1864	Rev. C.M. Stuart
197	25 June 1864	Hollingworth Newham Sarah Walker	Collingwood Newham Sarah Walker 💍 1864/5977 William Laurence Handcock Sarah Walker 💍 1864/7975	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	22 19	Dunedin Dunedin	14 months 3 days	Episcopal Church Dunedin	1523	[UNCLEAR] person to give consent	25 June 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
198	25 June 1864	Alfred Morgan Elizabeth Haughton	Alfred Morgan Elizabeth Haughen 💍 1864/5928	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	21 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1525		25 June 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
199	25 June 1864	James Brown Janet Crawford	James Brown Janet Crawford 💍 1864/6346 James Falconer Janet Crawford 💍 1864/5475	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	36 29	East Taieri North East Valley	7 yrs 8 days	In Home East Taieri	1366		25 June 1864	Rev. D.M. Stuart
200	27 June 1864	William Thomas Helen Simpson	William Thomas Miller Helen Simpson 💍 1864/5934 William Massey Jane Simpson 💍 1864/6688	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	24 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 14 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1527		27 June 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
201	30 June 1864	James Brown Catherine McNaught	James Brown Catherine McNaught 💍 1864/6481	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	26 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 6 months	In the office of the Registrar of marriages Dunedin	1264		30 June 1864	Registrar of marriages Dunedin
202	30 June 1864	John Lees Muir Mary Wheeler	John Lees Muir Mary Wheeler 💍 1864/6517 John Le Conteur Sarah Wheeler 💍 1864/8414	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 28	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In the house of John Lees Muir George Street Dunedin	1277	[UNCLEAR] person to give Consent	30 June 1864	Rev. J.L. Parsons

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).