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 552

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
28	10 February 1868	Thomas William Hilling Diana Sarah Pappas	Thomas William Stirling Diana Sarah Tapper 💍 1868/8918	Widower Widow	Draper	38 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 months	Wesleyan Church	2091		10 February 1868	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
29	11 February 1868	Edward Downes Mary Cummock	Edward Downes Mary Cumnock 💍 1868/10381	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 24	Blueskin Dunedin	3 yrs 4 yrs	Knox Church	1960		11 February 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
30	12 February 1868	John Knox Jane Phair	John Knox Jane Phair 💍 1868/10099	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 24	Green Island Dunedin	6 yrs 5 months	St. Paul's Church	1880		12 February 1868	Rev. E. G. Edwards
31	14 February 1868	Gavin Purdie Catherine Thomson	Gavin Purdie Catharine Thomson 💍 1868/10384	Widower Widow	Farmer	50 38	Peninsula Dunedin	1 year 6 months	In the house of Alexander Boutts, George Street	1981		14 February 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
32	15 February 1868	John Mullens Mary Myhorn	John Mullens Mary Nyhon 💍 1868/10231	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	34 34	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 yrs	St. Joseph's Church	1926		15 February 1868	Rev. D. Moreau
33	17 February 1868	William Henry Samson Helen Hay	Wm Henry Sanson Ellen Hay 💍 1868/10378	Bachelor Spinster	Quarryman	31 35	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 4 months	Knox Church	1979		17 February 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
34	17 February 1868	William Scott Ann Chapman	Wm Scott Ann Chapman 💍 1868/10375	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 4 months	Knox Church	1978		17 February 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
35	17 February 1868	John Robert Mace Mary Wood	John Robert Mace Mary Wood 💍 1868/9050	Bachelor Spinster	Brewer	26 32	Dunedin West Taieri	7 months 1 month	In the house of Mr. Wilson, West Taieri	2136		17 February 1868	Rev. Wm. Gillies
36	21 February 1868	Robert Bagrie Janet Turnbull	Robert Bagrie Janet Turnbull 💍 1868/8921	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Wesleyan Church	2092	Thomas Turnbull, father	21 February 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).