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 464

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
84	10 April 1866	James Hutton Margaret Hopp	James Hutton Margaret Hogg 💍 1866/9253	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	30 30	Dunedin Dunedin	4yrs. 2 weeks	In the house of Henry Miller Maitland Street Dunedin	1683		10 April 1866	Rev. D.M. Stuart
85	13 April 1866	George Beekman Maria Pyke	George Beckinan Maria Pyke 💍 1866/9142	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 5 yrs.	In the Baptist church Dunedin	1646		13 April 1866	Rev. J.L. Parsons
86	13 April 1866	William Stewart Jane Couper	William Stewart Jane Couper 💍 1866/8851	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	29 41	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs. 5 yrs	In the house of William Couper Leith Street Dunedin	1546		13 April 1866	Rev. R. Connebee
87	16 April 1866	David Watherston Catherine Hall	David Watherston Catherine Hall 💍 1866/9481	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	25 22	Section 20, Block 7 North Harbour District Blueskin	6 months 3 yrs.	In the house of Pott Chalmers Peter Watherston Main North road	1701		16 April 1866	Rev. W. Johnston
88	18 April 1866	Alexander Burt Janet Crawford	Alexander Burt Janet Crawford 💍 1866/9145	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs. 2 yrs.	In the house of William Crawford Dowling Street Dunedin	1649		18 April 1866	Rev. D.M. Stuart
89	19 April 1866	John Roy Elizabeth Booth	Jno Roy Elizabeth Booth 💍 1866/9256	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 year	In the house of William Young George Street Dunedin	1684		19 April 1866	Rev. D.M. Stuart
90	19 April 1866	Angus Smith Jane Houston	Angus Smith Jane Houston 💍 1866/9259	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger	21 18	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 18 months	In the house of John Houston Dundas Street Dunedin	1685	John Houston Father	20 April 1866	Rev. D.M. Stuart
91	21 April 1866	Richard Bunton Anna Estatia Bullen	Richard Bunton Anna Estatia Cullen 💍 1866/9037	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	30 32	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 weeks	In St. Josephs church Dunedin	1616		21 April 1866	Rev. D. Moreau
92	23 April 1866	Joseph Bates Emma Beasley	Joseph Bates Emma Beasley 💍 1866/8881	Widower Spinster	Shoemaker	44 20	West Taieri Dunedin	4 yrs. 1 year	In St. Pauls church Dunedin	1653		23 April 1866	Rev. E.G. Edwards

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).