Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 549

District of Quarter ending

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
1	2 January 1868	Micheal Manning Annie Bradley	Michael Manning Annie Bradley 💍 1868/10219 William Percival Annie Bradley 💍 1868/4389	Bachelor Spinster	Lamp lighter	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 6 yrs	St. Josephs Church	1922		2 January 1868	Revd. D. Moreau
2	3 January 1868	Robert Sorbes Barbara Lewis	Robert Forbes Barbara Lewis 💍 1868/10357	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	28 32	Portobella Portobello	1 year 4 yrs	the house of William Davis Pelichet Bay	1991		3 January 1868	Revd. D. M. Stuart
3	4 January 1868	Henry Branch Elizabeth Caroline Baker	Henry Branch Elizabeth Caroline Baker 💍 1868/10177	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	All Saints Church	1968		4 January 1868	Rev. E. H. Granger
4	4 January 1868	Murdoch M. Kenzie Jane Sinclair	Murdoch McKenzie Jane Sinclair 💍 1868/8849	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	31 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 yrs	In the house of Peter McEwen Russell Street Dunedin	2066		7 January 1868	Rev. L. Sutherland
5	8 January 1868	Michael M'Aneney Anne Perell	Michael Mcaneney Anne Ferrell 💍 1868/10222 Michael Murphy Anne Harnery 💍 1868/5462	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	23 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St. Josephs Church	1923		8 January 1868	Revd. D. Moreau
6	9 January 1868	James Bramond Isabella Brag Hutton	James Cramond Isabella Boag Hutton 💍 1868/10360	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 18	Dunedin Dunedin	16 yrs 8 yrs	In the house of William Hutton Great King Street Dunedin	1993	William Hutton Father	9 January 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
7	10 January 1868	Andrew Fleming Agnes Darling	Andrew Fleming Agnes Darling 💍 1868/10180	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	44 34	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 10 yrs	All Saints Church	1909		10 January 1868	Rev. E. H. Granger
8	11 January 1868	Richard Polkinghorn Elizabeth Jane Pearce	Richard Polkinghorn Elizabeth Jane Pearce 💍 1868/4332	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 19	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 6 yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	1950	Mary Ann Rowe Mother	11 January 1868	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
9	15 January 1868	John Hart Jane Nelson	John Hart Jane Neilson 💍 1868/4480 John Hart Mary Ann Kiernan 💍 1868/7847	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 yrs	In the house of John Cunningham Dowling Street Dunedin	2090		15 January 1868	Rev. A. R. Fitchett

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).