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 475

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
181	22 August 1866	William Boycott Charlotte Streeter	William Boycott Charlotte Streeter 💍 1866/8911	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	30 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Paul's Church	1567		22 August 1866	Revd. E. G. Edwards
182	22 August 1866	James Rattray Annie Edgar	James Rattray Annie Edgar 💍 1866/4273	Bachelor Widow	Blacksmith	30 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 week	In the house of Mrs Sutherland Cumberland Street Dunedin	1529		22 August 1866	Revd. Thomas Burns
183	22 August 1866	Allan Boyd Henrietta Blackstock	Allan Boyd Henrietta Blackstock 💍 1866/9322	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	36 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 months	In the house of Alexander Brebner London Street Dunedin	1707		22 August 1866	Revd. D. M. Stuart
184	23 August 1866	John Tansey Kate Cassels	John Faaney Kate Costello 💍 1866/9082	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2-1/2 yrs.	In St. Josephs Church Dunedin	1626		23 August 1866	Revd. D. Moreau
185	24 August 1866	John Gilston Wick Isabella Russell	John Elson Dick Isabella Russell 💍 1866/9493	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	26 22	Port Bells Portobello	2 yrs 1 year	In the house of Robert Wick Portobello	1765		24 August 1866	Rev. W. Johnston
186	25 August 1866	Charles James Harris Robertson Ann Sophia Wain	Charles James Harris Robertson Ann Sophia Wain 💍 1866/8914	Bachelor Spinster	Barman	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1/2 yrs 9 yrs.	In St. Paul's Church Dunedin	1568	Job Wain Father	25 August 1866	Revd. E. G. Edwards
187	27 August 1866	Patrick Finnagan Kate O'Dowd	Patrick Finnagan Kate O'Dowd 💍 1866/9085	Bachelor Spinster	Constable	34 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 weeks	In St. Joseph's Church Dunedin	1627		27 August 1866	Revd. D. Moreau
188	27 August 1866	Michael Watt Isabella Shand	Michael Watt Isabella Shand 💍 1866/9451	Bachelor Spinster	Minister of the Gospel	30 18	Green Island Green Island	2 yrs 1-1/2 yrs.	In the house of Mrs Shand Green Island	1750	Barbara Shand Mother	27 August 1866	Revd. William Will
189	28 August 1866	Joseph Alexander James Macgregor Lucy Mary Cecilia Evans	Joseph Kerr James McGregor Lucy Mary Cecilia Evans 💍 1866/9133	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	49 22	Andersons Bay Dunedin	4 yrs 2 months	In the Church Andersons Bay	1643		28 August 1866	Rev. J. H. Machaughton

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).