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 387

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
319	13 October 1864	Robert Browne Jessie Clayton	Robert Brown Jenkinson Jessie Caydzen 💍 1864/6523	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Laundrymaid	30 26	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 5 yrs	In the house of Jessie Clayton	1279		13 October 1864	Rev. J.L. Parsons
320	14 October 1864	Henry Wirgman Robinson Charlotte Darling	Henry Wingman Robinson Charlotte Darling 💍 1864/5882	Bachelor Spinster	Warden on the Gold Field	33 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 yrs	the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1549		14 October 1864	Rev. C.J. Edwards
321	14 October 1864	David Blackie Agnes Gray	David Blackie Agnes Gray 💍 1864/6062	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 18 months	In the house of Mr Jackson York Place Dunedin	1475		14 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
322	17 October 1864	George Sawyers Jane Tompson	George Sawers Jane Tompson 💍 1864/6116	Bachelor Spinster	Express Driver	32 19	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of William Thompson George Street Dunedin	714	William Thompson father	17 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
323	19 October 1864	John McCormick Ellen Escott	John McCormick Ellen Escott 💍 1864/5879	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman	21 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1548		19 October 1864	Rev. E.G. Edwards
324	19 October 1864	William Rooney Deborah Thompson	William Rooney Deborah Thompson 💍 1864/6589	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 26	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 1 month	In the Wesleyan Church Dunedin	1504		19 October 1864	Rev. J. Aldred
325	21 October 1864	Donald McDonald Mary Humphrey	Donald McDonald Mary Humphrey 💍 1864/6553	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 10 months	In the house of Mrs Humphrey St. Andrews Street Dunedin	1291		21 October 1864	Rev. R. Connebee
326	21 October 1864	John Morrison Eliza Reid Lee	Jno Morrison Eliza Reid Leck 💍 1864/6463 John Morrison Margaret McLeod 💍 1864/4611	Bachelor Spinster	Warehouseman	21 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr 2 1/2 yrs	In the house of Robert Todd Herriot Row Dunedin	1399	Robert Todd no person to give consent	21 October 1864	Rev. D.M. Stuart
327	22 October 1864	David Henderson Anna Louisa Lewis	David Henderson Anna Louisa Lewis 💍 1864/6809	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 2 yrs	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1244		22 October 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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).