Intentions to Marry, 1867

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840379, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 534

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
122	April 29 1867	Henry William Carver Margaret Younie	Henry Wm Carver Margaret Gowrie 💍 1867/10300	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 29	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 week	In Knox church Dunedin	1773		April 29	Revd D. M. Stuart
123	April 29 1867	Alexander Stewart Margaret Robertson	Alexander Stewart Margaret Robertson 💍 1867/9544	Bachelor Spinster	M.C.	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Imperial Hotel Dunedin	1775		April 29	Revd D. M. Stuart
124	April 22 1867	John Murphy Margaret Neylon	John Murphy Margaret Neilon 💍 1867/9253	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	22 22	Wakari Wakari	6 months 3 months	In St Josephs church Dunedin	1675		April 29	Revd J. Moreau
125	May 1 1867	Hugh Neill Margaret Cameron	Hugh Nicol Margaret Cameron 💍 1867/8953	Bachelor Widow	Cab Proprietor	30 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 3 1/2 yrs	In the dwelling of Revd Thomas Burns Dunedin	1573		May 14	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
126	May 1 1867	James Henderson Isabella Sutherland	James Henderson Sutherland Isabella Sutherland 💍 1867/9547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 28	West Taieri Dunedin	6 yrs 10 days	In the dwelling house of the Revd D. M. Stuart Dunedin	1776		May 1st	Revd D. M. Stuart
127	May 1 1867	Alexander Davidson Jessie Davidson	Alexander Davidson Jessie Davidson 💍 1867/8956	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	41 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 1 week	In the house of T. Moodie 6 Moull off Russell Street Dunedin	1594		May 14th	Revd Thomas Burns D.D.
128	May 2 1867	Frederick Burrell Caroline Brown	Frederick Burrell Caroline Brown 💍 1867/9361	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter	20 16	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 3 yrs	In the office of the Registrar Marriages Dunedin	1712	John Brown Father	May 2nd	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
129	May 4 1867	Alexander Carmack Mary Ann Davey	Alexander Cormick Mary Ann Davey 💍 1867/9196	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 16	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In [UNCLEAR] church Dunedin	1695	Mary Ann Suke Mother	May 4	Revd J. Aldred
130	May 11 1867	William Laysell Eliza Spackman	William Bosley Agnes Spackman 💍 1867/6175	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 20	Kaikorai Dunedin	2 yrs 2 months	In the house of William Barr Kaikorai	1690	Alexander Spackman Father	May 11	Revd 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).