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 389

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
337	31 October 1864	David Mackenzie Catherine Anderson	David McKenzie Catherine Anderson 💍 1864/6068 James Jordon Catherine Anderson 💍 1864/5673	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 27	Dunedin Hunsdin	3 days 11 months	In the house of Richard Anderson	1478		31 October 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
338	31 October 1864	William Henry Ings Catherine Ryan	William Henry Ingram Catherine Ryan 💍 1864/5890	Widower Spinster	Watchmaker	28 18	Port-chalmers Dunedin	4 Mys 9 months	In the Episcopal Church Dunedin	1552	Person to give consent	31 October 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
339	1 November 1864	John Campbell Hodges Flora Wilson	John Campbell Hodges Flora Wilson 💍 1864/6812	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	19 19	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 18 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1245	Person to give consent Jelora Wilson mother	1 November 1864	Registrar of Marriages
340	3 November 1864	Robert Belgour Margaret Ward	Robert Kilgour Margaret Ward 💍 1864/5893	Bachelor Spinster	Slaughterman	26 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 18 months	In the Episcopal church, Dunedin	1553		3 November 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
341	5 November 1864	William Anderson Alison Mitchell	William Anderson Alison Mitchell 💍 1864/5899	Bachelor Spinster	Cattle dealer	25 17	Blueskin Dunedin	6 months 2 yrs	In the Episcopal church Dunedin	1555	Belinda Richardson mother	5 November 1864	Rev. E. G. Edwards
342	8 November 1864	George Davidson Mary Brown	George Davidson Mary Brown 💍 1864/6080 George Johnson Janet Brown 💍 1864/6397	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 27	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In the house of the Rev. Thomas Burns Dunedin	1482		8 November 1864	Rev. Thomas Burns
343	8 November 1864	Robert Watson Ellen Wallace	Robert Watson Ellen Wallace 💍 1864/5608	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	26 19	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of James Wallace Maclaggan Street Dunedin	665	James Wallace father	8 November 1864	Revd. Dr. Meiklejohn
344	9 November 1864	John Campbell Hodges Flora Wilson	John Campbell Hodges Flora Wilson 💍 1864/6812	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	19 19	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 18 months	In the house of Flora Wilson Dowling Street Dunedin	1245	Person to give consent Flora Wilson mother	9 November 1864	Revd. D. M. Stuart
345	9 November 1864	Robert Arthur Lawson Jessie Sinclair Hepburn	Robt Arthur Lawson Jessie Sinclair Hepburn 💍 1864/6469	Bachelor Spinster	Architect	31 21	Dunedin Wakari	2 yrs 14 yrs	In the house of George Hepburn Wakari	1402		9 November 1864	Revd. Dr. 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).