1865 Intentions to Marry

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840377, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 411

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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

24 February 1865

Alexander Govan
Bertha Bateman

Alexr Govan
Bertha Bateman
💍 1865/8540

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

21
17

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 1/2 yrs
3 yrs.

In the house of John Forsyth Pelichet Bay Dunedin

65/1521

George Bateman, father

24 February 1865

Rev. D. M. Stuart

No	73
Date of Notice	24 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Govan	Bertha Bateman
BDM Match (87%)	Alexr Govan	Bertha Bateman
	💍 1865/8540
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	21	17
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 1/2 yrs	3 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the house of John Forsyth Pelichet Bay Dunedin
Folio	65/1521
Consent	George Bateman, father
Date of Certificate	24 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. M. Stuart

24 February 1865

Henry Berwick
Agnes Richard Logan

Henry Berwick
Agnes Richard Logan
💍 1865/8543

Bachelor
Spinster

Cabinet Maker

40
full

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 yrs.
7 yrs.

In the house of John Logan, Violet Grove Dunedin

65/1522

24 February 1865

Rev. D. M. Stuart

No	74
Date of Notice	24 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Berwick	Agnes Richard Logan
	💍 1865/8543
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Cabinet Maker
Age	40	full
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 yrs.	7 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the house of John Logan, Violet Grove Dunedin
Folio	65/1522
Consent
Date of Certificate	24 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. M. Stuart

27 February 1865

James Kershaw Hardy
Marion Holliday

James Kershaw Hardy
Marion Holliday
💍 1865/8114

Widower
Spinster

Engineer

28
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 yrs
1 1/2 yrs.

In St. Paul's Church Dunedin

65/1370

27 February 1865

Rev. E. G. Edwards

No	75
Date of Notice	27 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Kershaw Hardy	Marion Holliday
	💍 1865/8114
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	28	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 yrs	1 1/2 yrs.
Marriage Place	In St. Paul's Church Dunedin
Folio	65/1370
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. G. Edwards

27 February 1865

Henry Saul
Sarah Jane Brown

Henry Saul
Sarah Jane Brown
💍 1865/8792

Bachelor
Spinster

Moulder

26
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 yrs.
2 yrs.

In the house of the Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns Dunedin

65/1610

27 February 1865

Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.

No	76
Date of Notice	27 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Saul	Sarah Jane Brown
	💍 1865/8792
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Moulder
Age	26	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 yrs.	2 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the house of the Revd. Dr. Thomas Burns Dunedin
Folio	65/1610
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.

27 February 1865

John Geary
Mary Dugid

John Geary
Mary Duguid
💍 1865/9002

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

33
26

Portobello
Portobello

5 yrs
4 months

St. Paul's Church Dunedin

65/1684

27 February 1865

Rev. E. G. Edwards

No	77
Date of Notice	27 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Geary	Mary Dugid
BDM Match (95%)	John Geary	Mary Duguid
	💍 1865/9002
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	33	26
Dwelling Place	Portobello	Portobello
Length of Residence	5 yrs	4 months
Marriage Place	St. Paul's Church Dunedin
Folio	65/1684
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. G. Edwards

28 February 1865

Francis Henry Burditt
Julia Amy Jones

Francis Henry Burdett
Julia Amy Jones
💍 1865/7742

Bachelor
Spinster

Surgeon

25
22

Lyttelton
Dunedin

5 months
2 months

In the Episcopal Church Lyttelton

65/1243

28 February 1865

Rev.Knowles

No	78
Date of Notice	28 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Francis Henry Burditt	Julia Amy Jones
BDM Match (98%)	Francis Henry Burdett	Julia Amy Jones
	💍 1865/7742
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Surgeon
Age	25	22
Dwelling Place	Lyttelton	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 months	2 months
Marriage Place	In the Episcopal Church Lyttelton
Folio	65/1243
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev.Knowles

28 February 1865

John Holly
Margaret McRonald

John Hally
Margaret McRonald
💍 1865/8366

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

29
29

Dunedin
Dunedin

1 yr.
1 yr.

In the Presbytery house of St Joseph's Chapel Dunedin

65/1457

28 February 1865

Rev. D. Moreau

No	79
Date of Notice	28 February 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Holly	Margaret McRonald
BDM Match (95%)	John Hally	Margaret McRonald
	💍 1865/8366
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	29	29
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	1 yr.	1 yr.
Marriage Place	In the Presbytery house of St Joseph's Chapel Dunedin
Folio	65/1457
Consent
Date of Certificate	28 February 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Moreau

2 March 1865

William Marslin
Margaret Young

William Marslin
Margaret Young
💍 1865/8249

John Barry
Margaret Young
💍 1865/4208

Widower
Spinster

Miner

29
30

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 weeks
4 yrs.

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

65/1420

2 March 1865

Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

No	80
Date of Notice	2 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Marslin	Margaret Young
	💍 1865/8249
BDM Match (60%)	John Barry	Margaret Young
	💍 1865/4208
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	29	30
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 weeks	4 yrs.
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
Folio	65/1420
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin

2 March 1865

Robert Heaney
Lead Inman
Lydia - widow of Robert Ethelbert Inman

Robert Heaney
Lead Inman
💍 1865/8552

Bachelor
Widow

Draper

23
24

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 yrs.
3 yrs.

In Knox Church Dunedin

65/1525

2 March 1865

Rev. D. M. Stuart

No	81
Date of Notice	2 March 1865
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Heaney	Lead Inman Lydia - widow of Robert Ethelbert Inman
	💍 1865/8552
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Draper
Age	23	24
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 yrs.	3 yrs.
Marriage Place	In Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	65/1525
Consent
Date of Certificate	2 March 1865
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. M. Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1903. 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).