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 469

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
129	15 June 1866	Henry White Charlotte McDonald	Henry White Charlotte McDonald 💍 1866/9283	Widower Spinster	Master Mariner	46 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 21 months	In the house of Alexander R Hay Constitution Street Dunedin	1693		15 June 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
130	15 June 1866	Charles Paterson Barbara Edgar	Charles Paterson Barbara Edgar 💍 1866/9289	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 months	In Knox Church Dunedin	1695		15 June 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
131	15 June 1866	William Ira Risbey Jane Meen	William M Risby Jane Keen 💍 1866/8668	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	22 19	Port Chalmers Dunedin	3 days 8 months	In the Wesleyan Church Dunedin	1484	No Person to give Consent	15 June 1866	Rev. J. Aldred
132	18 June 1866	Ralph Donkin Eliza Dupgen	Ralph Donkin Elisa Duggan 💍 1866/9055	Widower Spinster	Civil Engineer	37 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 2 yrs	In St. Josephs Church Dunedin	1616		18 June 1866	Rev. D. Moreau
133	18 June 1866	Walter Beck Euphemia Michie	Walter Beck Euphemia Michie Kilgour 💍 1866/9487	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 20	Portobello Portobello	2-1/2 yrs 3 yrs	In the House of Alexander Hilfour Portobello	1763	Alexander Hilfour Father	18 June 1866	Rev. Wm Johnston
134	18 June 1866	Henry Skelly Sarah Ann Ross	Henry Skey Sarah Ann Ross 💍 1866/9154	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	29 22	Dunedin Wakari	4 yrs 5 yrs	In the House of Archibald Hilson Ross Wakari	1650		18 June 1866	Rev. J. D. Parsons
135	18 June 1866	Benjamin Coleman Mary Ann Milton	Benjamin Coleman Mary Ann Mitton 💍 1866/4348	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	25 17	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 6 yrs	In St. Pauls Church Dunedin	1562	Mary Ann Milton Mother	18 June 1866	Rev. E. G. Edwards
136	19 June 1866	James Agnews Ann McLennan	James Agnew Ann McLennan 💍 1866/9292	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	23 25	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 5 yrs	In the house of Thomas Godfrey George Street Dunedin	1696		19 June 1866	Rev. D. M. Stuart
137	19 June 1866	Andrew Sutherland Catherine McArthur	Andrew Sutherland Catherine McArthur Wilson 💍 1866/9295	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	36 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 yrs	In the house of John B Wilson Pilleul Street Dunedin	1697	John B Wilson Father	19 June 1866	Rev. 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).