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 383

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
293	22 September 1864	Gavin Gordon Isabella Nenanderson	Gavin Gordon Isabella Henderson 💍 1864/5600	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	30 23	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 3 weeks	Mrs Jackson, Melville Street	1651	September 22 1864	Revd W. Mulkijohn
294	22 September 1864	William Smith Elizabeth Jackson	William Smith Elizabeth Jackson 💍 1864/5603	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	34 32	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 1 year	Mrs Jackson, Melville Street	1652	Septr 22 1864	Revd hl. Meiklyjohn
295	23 September 1864	Peter In Benzie Margaret Gorroch	Peter McKenzie Margaret Forrest 💍 1864/6439	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 8 months	Daniel McBenzie, Albany Street	1391	Septr. 23 1864	Revd hl. Stuart
296	23 September 1864	John Smith Elizabeth Justice	Jno Smith Elizabeth Justice 💍 1864/6445	Bachelor Widow	Watchmaker	27 26	Waikouaiti Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 month	William Justice, Regent Road	1393	Septr 23 1864	Read hl. M. Stuart
297	23 September 1864	William Blair Sarah Stride	William Blair Sarah Ann Stride 💍 1864/5585	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	28 21	Dunedin Anderson's Bay	6 months 3 months	J. H. Macnaughten	1667	Septr 23 1864	Revd J.H. machaughton
298	24 September 1864	Laurence Glynn Rebecca Libby	Laurence Flynn Rebecca Coby 💍 1864/5720	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	30 25	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 7 days	St Josephs Chapel	1613	Sept 25 1864	Revd h. moreau
299	26 September 1864	John George Henry Annie Scholar	John George Henry Annie Schollar 💍 1864/5605	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 18 months	John George Henry, Maitland Street	1653	Sept 26 1864	Read hl. Meiklejohn
300	27 September 1864	William Randall Statham Susan Fisher	Wm Randall Latham Susan Fisher 💍 1864/6442	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 2 yrs.	Mrs James Fisher, St. Young Street	1392	Septr 27 1864	Revd W. M. Stuart
301	30 September 1864	James Boupar Mary Ann Attenton	James Couper Mary Ann Atkinson 💍 1864/6448 James Moran Mary Anne Kean 💍 1864/5768 James Boon Mary Ann Himes 💍 1864/8281	Bachelor Spinster	Cordial Manufacturer	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs. 5 months	Knox Church	1394	Septr 30 1864	Revd W. 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).