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 420

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
137	19 May 1865	William Welsh Christina Langster	William Welsh Christina Sangster 💍 1865/8822	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 24	Wakari Dunedin	2 2/yrs 2 yrs.	In the manse of the Revd. Thomas Burns. h. h. Dunedin	1021		19 May 1865	Rev. Thomas Burns h. h.
138	20 May 1865	George Wallace Helen Watson	George Wallace Helen Watson 💍 1865/8615	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 30	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs. 1 yrs.	In the house of Robert Graham Cumberland Street. Dunedin	1547		20 May 1865	Revd. D. M. Stuart
139	22 May 1865	William Townsend Harriett Margaret Parkes formerly Burkes	William Townsend Harriet Margaret Parkes 💍 1865/8819	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	36 18	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 10 months	In the manse of the Revd. Thomas Burns. h. h. Dunedin	1020	Elezabeth Hickman mother	22 May 1865	Revd. Thomas Burns h. h.
140	23 May 1865	Roger Morton Ballinshaw Mary Keene	Roger Morton Rollinshaw Mary Keene 💍 1865/8018	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 22	Dunedin Waikouaiti District	2 yrs. 1 month	In the Episcopal Church Waikouaiti Waikouaiti District	1338		23 May 1865	Revd. A. Waterst
141	25 May 1865	James Alexander Matthews Isabella Miller	James Alexander Matthews Isabella Miller 💍 1865/9361 Alexander Rundle Annabella Miller 💍 1865/6854	Bachelor Spinster	Printer	23 25	Dunedin Tokomairiro District	2 months 4 yrs.	In the house of James Garden Tokomairiro Tokomairiro District	1810		25 May 1865	Revd. G. B. Todd
142	26 May 1865	Charles Wilmot Charlotte Jane Hickey	Charles Wilmot Charlotte Jane Hickey 💍 1865/8390	Bachelor Spinster	Actor	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs. 1 yr.	In St. Josephs Presbytery house Dunedin	1465		26 May 1865	Revd. h. Moreau
143	27 May 1865	George Goddingham Margaret Miller	George Ledingham Margaret Miller 💍 1865/8618	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In the house of James Turnbull Heriot Row Dunedin	1548		27 May 1865	Revd h. M. Stuart
144	31 May 1865	William Thompson Ellen Stead Churchward	William Thompson Ellen Steed Churchward 💍 1865/8123	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	29 35	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 3 days	In St. Pauls Church Dunedin	1375		31 May 1865	Rev. E. G. Edwards
145	1 June 1865	William Ferris Browne Johanna Heenan	William Ferris Browne Johanna Heenan 💍 1865/8621	Bachelor Spinster	Draughts man	33 27	Dunedin Dunedin	2 2/yrs. 10 yrs.	In Knox Church Dunedin	1549		1 June 1865	Revd. 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 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).