Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 459

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
55	13 March 1866	William Jack Margaret Holliday	Wm Jack Margaret Halliday 💍 1866/9226	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 2 yrs	Knox Church Dunedin	1694		13 March 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
56	16 March 1866	Henry Guthrie Isabella Graham	Henry Guthrie Isabella Graham 💍 1866/9238	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 18	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 2 yrs	In the house of George Weardon, Blue Reserve Walker Street Dunedin	1698	Margaret Hellyer, Mother	16 March 1866	Rev. W. M. Stuart
57	16 March 1866	Alexander McKenzie Mary Kemp	Alexr McKenzie Mary Kemp 💍 1866/9232 Alexander McKenzie Kate Kemp 💍 1866/5080	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 23	N. E. Valley Dunedin	1 year 18 months	In the house of Mrs Sutherland Cumberland Street Dunedin	1696		16 March 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
58	16 March 1866	Robert Mitchell Magdalene Ireland	Robt Mitchell Magdalene Ireland 💍 1866/9235	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 26	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of John McLaren, Grant Street Dunedin	1699		16 March 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
59	16 March 1866	John Griffiths Christina McIver		Bachelor Spinster	Miner	28 20	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 18 months	In the house of James Duncan, Forth Street Dunedin	1697	No Person to give Consent	16 March 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
60	16 March 1866	John Mills Jessie Thompson	John Mills Jessie Thompson 💍 1866/8845	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 3 yrs	In the manse of the Rev. R. Connebee Dunedin	1544		16 March 1866	Rev. R. Connebee
61	19 March 1866	Charles Henderson Mary Kennane	Charles Newton Mary Ann Lee 💍 1866/10161	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	25 yrs 3 yrs	St Joseph's Presbytery House Dunedin			19 March 1866	Rev. H. Moreau
62	20 March 1866	Carl Moller Hannah Norton	Carl Möller Hannah Norton 💍 1866/8752	Bachelor Spinster	Jeweller	34 19	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 6 yrs	In the Manse of the Rev. Thos Burns A.D., Dunedin	1572		4 April 1866	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
63	21 March 1866	Robert McPherson Helen Dickson	Robert McPherson Helen Dickson 💍 1866/8746	Bachelor Spinster	Cordial Manufacturer	25 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2 weeks	In the house of Mr Whittington, Union Street Dunedin	1570		21 March 1866	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.

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).