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 485

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
268	1 December 1866	Gibson Kirke Turton Annie Isabel Borthside	Gibson Kirke Turton Annie Isabel Bathgate 💍 1866/8932	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 3 1/2 yrs	In St. Pauls Church Dunedin	1574	1 December 1866	Revd. G. R. Edwards
269	4 December 1866	Archibald Reid Ure Elizabeth Chalmers	Archibald Reid Ure Elizabeth Chalmers 💍 1866/9406	Bachelor Widow	Grocer	42 38	Dunedin Dunedin	3 1/2 yrs 10 yrs	In the house of Mr. Sibbald Caversham	1735	4 December 1866	Revd. D. M. Stuart
270	10 December 1866	Edmund Peel Kenyon Isabella Jackson	Edmund Peel Kenyon Isabella Jackson 💍 1866/8926	Widower Spinster	Solicitor	35 21	Dunedin Dunedin	6 yrs 7 weeks	In St. Pauls church Dunedin	1572	10 December 1866	Revd. G. R. Edwards
271	10 December 1866	George Horton Catherine Jane Harrison	George Horton Catherine Jane Harrison 💍 1866/8929	Bachelor Widow	Miner	26 29	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 3 years	In St. Pauls church Dunedin	1573	10 December 1866	Revd. G. R. Edwards
272	10 December 1866	Robert Home Catherine Grimmond Robertson	Robt Home Catharine Grimmond Robertson 💍 1866/9412	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	33 32	Dunedin Dunedin	1/2 yrs 2 yrs	In Knox church Dunedin	1737	10 December 1866	Revd. D. M. Stuart
273	11 December 1866	Edward Bethel Hammond Charlotte Davidson	Edward Bethel Hammond Charlotte Davidson 💍 1866/9415	Bachelor Widow	Settler	42 [UNCLEAR]	Kaikorai Walton Park	5 yrs 5 days last January	In the house of James Howorth Esq. Walton Park	1738	11 December 1866	Revd. D. M. Stuart
274	11 December 1866	William Begg Catherine Smart	Wm Begg Catherine Smart 💍 1866/9136	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 23	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	17 yrs 1 1/2 yrs	In the house of Adam Begg Andersons Bay	1644	11 December 1866	Rev. J. H. McNaughton
275	11 December 1866	John Wilson Janet Begg	John Wilson Janet Begg 💍 1866/9139	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	29 23	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	5 yrs 17 yrs	In the house of Adam Begg Andersons Bay	1645	11 December 1866	Rev. J. H. McNaughton
276	12 December 1866	William Dermer Eliza Maria Haydon	William Dermer Eliza Marie Haydon 💍 1866/8701	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	40 30	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of the Rev. Mr. Brunton Moray Place Dunedin	1495	12 December 1866	Rev. A. Brunton

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).