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

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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
72	27 April 1868	Robert Pollock Margaret M. Onie	Robert Pollock Margaret McOnie 💍 1868/10414	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 22	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 7 months	In the house of Mrs Nelson, George Street, Dunedin	1993		27 April 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
73	29 April 1868	James Beattie Jenneata Grieve	James Beattie Jenneata Grieve 💍 1868/8858	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2 yrs	In the Manse of the Rev. D. Sutherland	2069		29 April 1868	Rev. D. Sutherland
74	1 May 1868	William Todd Janet Paterson	William Todd Janet Paterson 💍 1868/10408	Bachelor Widow	Miner	30 32	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church, Dunedin	1991		1 May 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
75	4 May 1868	William Melville Margaret McKenzie	William Melville Margaret McKenzie 💍 1868/10411 Peter McNeil Margaret McKenzie 💍 1868/9596	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	31 31	Dunedin Dunedin	6 yrs 5 yrs	In the house of William Wallace, George Street, Dunedin	1992		4 May 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
76	5 May 1868	Michael Kyne Ellen M. Beath	Michael Kyne Ellen McGrath 💍 1868/10243	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 23	Dunedin Dunedin	5 1/2 yrs 5 yrs	St Joseph's Church, Dunedin	1930		5 May 1868	Rev. D. Moreau
77	6 May 1868	Samuel Wright Emily Smith	Samuel Wright Emily Smith 💍 1868/10111	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 15 months	St Paul's Church, Dunedin	1885	McPherson	6 May 1868	Rev. D. G. Edward
78	6 May 1868	Emanuel John Lydia Francis	Emanuel John Lydia Francis 💍 1868/10054	Bachelor Widow	Seaman	25 33	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 months	In the Manse of the Rev. Thomas Burns	1863		6 May 1868	Rev. Thomas Burns
79	6 May 1868	Frank Porter Mansfield Emma Frances Potter Taylor	Frank Porter Mansfield Emma Frances Potter Taylor 💍 1868/8861	Bachelor Widow	Merchant	37 28	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 1 year	In the house of Mr Forsyth, Scotland Street, Dunedin	2070		6 May 1868	Rev. D. Sutherland
80	7 May 1868	John Campbell Morris Hannah Maria Street	John Campbell Morris Hannah Maria Street 💍 1868/10114	Bachelor Spinster	Bank Clerk	25 18	Dunedin Andersons Bay	5 yrs 2 yrs	St Paul's Church, Dunedin	1886	McPherson	7 May 1868	Rev. D. G. Edward

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).