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 435

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
252	2 October 1865	Alexander Patterson Jane Miller		Bachelor Spinster	Publican	22 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 5 months	Knox Church			2 October 1865	Revd. D. M. Stuart
253	3 October 1865	John White Mary Hellen	John White Mary Nellen 💍 1865/8714	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	23 18	Portobello Portobello	6 months 5 months	Knox Church Dunedin	1584	no Person to give Consent	3 October 1865	Revd. D. M. Stuart
254	6 October 1865	Thomas Robertson Margaret Napier	Thos Robertson Margaret Napier 💍 1865/8720	Widower Spinster	Farmer	66 40	Andersons Bay Dunedin	17 yrs. 2 1/2 yrs.	In George Dempsters, house, Forth Street Dunedin	1586		6 October 1865	Revd. D. M. Stuart
255	7 October 1865	William McPherson Agnes Hardie	William McPherson Agnes Hardie 💍 1865/8876	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 days	In the manse of the Revd. Thomas Burns D.D., Dunedin	1639		7 October 1865	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
256	10 October 1865	Adam Browford Jessie Finlay	Adam Crawford Jessie Finlay 💍 1865/8717	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 2 yrs.	In the house of Mrs McLaren, Howe Street Dunedin	1585	J. Tinlay, father	10 October 1865	Rev. D. M. Stuart
257	12 October 1865	Ernest Littlejohn Harriet Matilda Thirster	Ernest Littlejohn Harriet Matilda Sansbury 💍 1865/8102	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	23 24	Dunedin Dunedin	1 1/2 yrs. 3 days	In the manse of the Revd. R. Connebee Dunedin	1366		12 October 1865	Revd. R. Connebee
258	13 October 1865	William Allan Marion Seaton	William Allan Marion Seaton 💍 1865/8981	Bachelor Spinster	Letter	24 21	Portobello Portobello	2 yrs. 17 yrs.	In the house of James Seaton Portobello	1676		13 October 1865	Revd. W. Johnston
259	13 October 1865	David Wilson Janet Hall	David Wilson Janet Hall 💍 1865/8879	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	31 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the house of David McLeish, Duncan Street Dunedin	1640		13 October 1865	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
260	14 October 1865	Andrew Lemon Bridget Casey	Andrew Dimond Bridget Casey 💍 1865/8438	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	28 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs. 3 yrs.	In St. Josephs Presbytery house, Dunedin	1482		14 October 1865	Revd. H. Moreau

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).