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 440

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
297	23 November 1865	James Broadfoot Jane Clark	James Broadfoot Jane Clark 💍 1865/8234	Bachelor Spinster	Letter Carrier	24 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 10 months	In the house of John Barr High Street Dunedin	1415		23 November 1865	Rev. R. Connebee
298	25 November 1865	Charles Fraser Catherine Midellan	Charles Fraser Catharine McLellan 💍 1865/8741	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	39 28	Dunedin Dunedin	10 yrs 5 yrs	In Knox church Dunedin	1593		25 November 1865	Revd. D. M. Stuart
299	29 November 1865	John Breagh Isabella Bray	John Creagh Isabella Craig 💍 1865/8108 John Browning Isabella Bruce 💍 1865/5054	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	21 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of Mr. William Douglass Clyde Street Dunedin	1368	Andrew Bray, father	29 November 1865	Rev. R. Connebee
300	29 November 1865	George Davidson Mary Walton	George Davidson Mary Dalton 💍 1865/8465 Andrew Davidson Mary MacKay 💍 1865/8498	Bachelor Spinster	Sailor	23 27	Dunedin Leversham	13 months 3 yrs	In St. Joseph's Presbytery House Dunedin	1491		29 November 1865	Revd. D. Moreau
301	29 November 1865	Robert Pearce Mary Elizabeth Hough	Robert Pearce Mary Elizabeth Hough 💍 1865/8903	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan church Dunedin	1648	no person to give consent	29 November 1865	Revd. J. Aldred
302	2 December 1865	Thomas Doulon Ann Fitzpatrick	Thomas Doulon Ann Fitzpatrick 💍 1865/8468	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	29 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 18 months	In St. Joseph's Presbytery House Dunedin	1492		2 December 1865	Revd. D. Moreau
303	4 December 1865	William John Weir Eliza Ann Steel	William John Weir Eliza Ann Steel Kay McVickar 💍 1865/8894	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of William John Weir High Street Dunedin	1645		4 December 1865	Rev. Thomas Burns, A.M., Meym. Vicar
304	6 December 1865	Richard Jones Jane Taylor	Richard Jones Jane Taylor 💍 1866/9187	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor	23 30	Dunedin Caversham	10 months 3 yrs	In Knox Church Dunedin	1661		6 December 1865	Rev. D. M. Stuart
305	8 December 1865	Darcy Happitt Caroline Laura Wood	D'Arcy Haggitt Caroline Laura Wood 💍 1865/9011	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	23 22	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 3 days	In All Saints church Dunedin	1688		8 December 1865	Rev. E. H. Granger

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).