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 379

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
257	14 August 1864	William Carter Flora Gordon	Wm Carter Flora Gordon 💍 1864/6403	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	21 20	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 18 months	Knox Church, Dunedin	1379		16 August 1864	Rev. A.M. Stuart
258	17 August 1864	David Thomas Catherine Sinclair	David Thomas Catherine Sinclair 💍 1864/6406	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 27	Dunedin Dunedin	6 yrs 18 months	British Hotel, George Street, Dunedin	1380		18 August 1864	Rev. W. M. Stuart
259	18 August 1864	Thomas Bacon Elizabeth Smith	Thomas Bacon Elizabeth Smith 💍 1864/3721	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	22 22	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 18 months	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1537		18 August 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
260	19 August 1864	William Wright Matilda Andrews	William Wright Matilda Andrews 💍 1864/6580	Widower Widow	Gardener	38 23	Portobello Portobello	8 months 2 years	Wesleyan Church, Dunedin	1301		19 August 1864	Rev. J. Aldred
261	20 August 1864	Matthew Were Hodge Agnes Jane McLellan	Matthew Vere Hodge Agnes Jane McLellan 💍 1864/6484	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	26 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 4 yrs	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1265	Lucinda McLellan, mother	20 August 1864	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
262	20 August 1864	Alexander Clark Mary Gillies	Alexander Clark Mary Gillies 💍 1864/6487	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	36 38	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 3 months	St. Josephs Chanel, Dunedin	1266		20 August 1864	Rev. L. Moreau
263	20 August 1864	William Cummins Elizabeth Stock	William Allen Elizabeth Tod 💍 1864/4140 William Smith Elizabeth Jackson 💍 1864/5603 William Tripp Elizabeth Grogan 💍 1864/5807 William Bramley Elizabeth Luxton 💍 1864/7773 William John Smaile Elizabeth Dowrick 💍 1864/8005 William Garrick Elizabeth Currie 💍 1864/5661 William Stuart Elizabeth Mees 💍 1864/3963	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 9 months	St. Josephs Chapel, Dunedin			20 August 1864	Rev. L. Moreau
264	22 August 1864	Charles Gratten Harriet Court	Charles Grater Harriet Eliza McCourt 💍 1864/5907	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	40 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 1/2 yrs 2 1/2 yrs	Episcopal Church, Dunedin	1538		22 August 1864	Rev. E. J. Edwards
265	23 August 1864	Alexander Syme Margaret Munro	Alexr Syme Margaret Munro 💍 1864/6412	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	28 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 7 days	House of Mr Jago, Leith Street, Dunedin	1382		23 August 1864	Rev. D. M. Stuart

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).