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 561

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
99	6 June 1868	David Ferguson Margaret Whyte	David Ferguson Margaret Whyte 💍 1868/10444	Widower Widow	Cabinetmaker	46 36	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 5 years	house of Mrs Millar, Cargill Street, Dunedin	2003	6 June 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
100	6 June 1868	Samuel Chesney Maggie Thorburn	Samuel Chesney Maggie Thorburn 💍 1868/4317	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	29 29	East Taieri Green Island	4 months 3½ years	house [UNCLEAR], East Taieri	2082	6 June 1868	Rev. M. Watt
101	10 June 1868	William Lummock Mary Sanders	William Cummock Mary Sanders 💍 1868/8867	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	23 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 4½ years	In the house of John Lummock, Russell Street, Dunedin	2076	10 June 1868	Rev. D. Sutherland
102	11 June 1868	James Robertson Margaret Lindsay	James Robertson Margaret Lindsay 💍 1868/10453	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	32 25	Dunedin N.E. Valley	3 weeks 5 years	Knox Church, Dunedin	2006	11 June 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
103	11 June 1868	Thomas Riddell Dodds Jessie McNaughton	Thomas Riddle Dodds Jessie McNaughton 💍 1868/10441	Bachelor Spinster	Law Clerk	27 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 5 years	In the house of Thomas Riddell, Dodds, Laing's Terrace Dunedin	2002	11 June 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
104	12 June 1868	George Daniels Priscilla Hannah	George Daniels Priscilla Hannah Wastie Salter 💍 1868/10450	Bachelor Spinster	Hospital Warder	34 21	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 14 years	In the house of James Pearce, Castle Street Dunedin	2005	12 June 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
105	13 June 1868	Donald Cameron Mary Cameron	Donald Cameron Mary Cameron 💍 1868/10321	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	35 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1959	13 June 1868	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
106	13 June 1868	Samuel King Margaret O'Connor	Samuel King Margaret O'Connor 💍 1868/10117	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	St. Paul's Church, Dunedin	1887	13 June 1868	Rev. C. G. Edwards
107	15 June 1868	Peter Orr Agnes Russell Turnbull	Peter Orr Agnes Russell Turnbull 💍 1868/10447	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 month	In the house of Mrs Turnbull, London Street, Dunedin	2004	15 June 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart

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).