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 377

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
239	25 July 1864	William Watson Elizabeth Grundy	Wm Watson Elizth Grundy 💍 1864/6382	Bachelor Widow	Carter	30 40	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 5 yrs	In the house of Elizabeth Grundy, Water of Leith	1372	25 July 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
240	26 July 1864	David Smart Arnott Elizabeth Anderson	David Smart Arnott Elizabeth Anderson 💍 1864/4283	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 20 months	In the house of Richard Anderson, Primrose Hill, Dunedin	1460	26 July 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
241	27 July 1864	William Henry Stone Elizabeth Ann Green	William Henry Stone Elizabeth Anne Green 💍 1864/6520	Widower Spinster	Smith	32 32	Dunedin Dunedin	27 yrs 3 days	In the Baptist Chapel, King Street, Dunedin	1278	27 July 1864	Revd. J. L. Parsons
242	28 July 1864	James Gray Jessie Sheldon	James Gray Jessie Sheldon 💍 1864/5951	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	28 22	Green Island Green Island	8 months 18 months	In the Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1534	28 July 1864	Revd. E. G. Edwards
243	29 July 1864	Charles Aitken Annie McEldowney	Charles Atkin Annie McGillvray 💍 1864/6385	Bachelor Spinster	Brickmaker	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of John Wright, Brown St., Dunedin	1373	29 July 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
244	30 July 1864	Andrew Weaver Margaret Soal	Andrew Duncan Margaret Leal 💍 1864/5597 Andrew Swanson Margaret Rumpf 💍 1865/7739 Andrew Laidlaw Margaret Young 💍 1864/4957	Bachelor Spinster	Shoemaker	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr 2 months	In the house of Mr. Fisher, High Street, Dunedin	1650	30 July 1864	Revd. W. Meiklejohn
245	2 August 1864	Peter Anderson Mary White	Peter Anderson Mary White 💍 1864/6388	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 1 yr	In the house of Thomas Robertson, Pelichet Street, Dunedin	1374	2 August 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
246	4 August 1864	John Drew Margaret Currie Gray	Jno Drew Margaret Currie Gray 💍 1864/6394	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 2 yrs	In the house of John Drew, Jnr., Cumberland Street, Dunedin	1376	4 August 1864	Reverend W. Meiklejohn
247	4 August 1864	James Taggart Mary Hogen	James Taggart Margaret Hogan 💍 1864/5711	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 2 yrs	In St. Joseph's Chapel, Dunedin	1610	4 August 1864	Revd. W. Moreau

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).