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 381

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
275	31 August 1864	George Stephens Brodrick Mary Rollo	George Septimus Barwick Mary Rolls 💍 1864/5919	Widower Spinster	Merchant	34 33	Caversham Near Dunedin	4 yrs 2 yrs	St Peters Church Caversham	1542		31 August 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
276	2 September 1864	Samuel Webb Harriet Catherine Powell	Samuel Webb Harriett Catherine Powell 💍 1864/5922	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	25 16	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 18 months	Church Dunedin	1543	Thomas Powell, father	2 September 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
277	2 September 1864	Thomas Powell Margaret Hunter	Thomas Powell Margaret Hunter 💍 1864/6583	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	40 26	Wakari Wakari	2 yrs 4 months	Residence of Peter Wilson Dunedin	1302		2 September 1864	Rev. J. Aldred
278	2 September 1864	Louis Geralda Honoria Smith	Louis Ginaldi Honoria Smith 💍 1864/5714	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	25 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 1 1/2 yrs	St Josephs Chapel Dunedin	1601		2 September 1864	Rev. J. Moran
279	5 September 1864	James Reid Wilson Mary McLeamand	James Reid Wilson Mary Freeland 💍 1864/6424	Bachelor Spinster	Harness Maker	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 10 months	In the house of William McLeamand George Street Dunedin	1386		5 September 1864	Rev. Dr. Stuart
280	7 September 1864	William Hannah Jessie Alexander	William Hannah Jessie Alexander 💍 1864/6092	Bachelor Spinster	Express Proprietor	28 17	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 9 yrs	In the house of M. Alexander Maitland Street Dunedin	1466	Janet Alexander, mother	7 September 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
281	13 September 1864	Alexander Willson Sarah Reilly	Alexander William Moncreiff Sarah Reilly 💍 1864/5925	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	32 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 3 days	The Episcopal Church Dunedin	1544		13 September 1864	Rev. J. G.
282	13 September 1864	Thomas Webster Fyfe Jane Grangie	Thomas Webster Fyfe Jane Craigie 💍 1864/6490	Widower Spinster	Painter	36 19	Dunedin Dunedin	30 yrs 30 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1268		13 September 1864	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
283	13 September 1864	Richard Nero Elizabeth Wilson	Richard Hore Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1864/6493	Bachelor Widow	Carter	36 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 18 months	In the Office of the Registrar of marriages Dunedin	1269		13 September 1864	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

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).