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 572

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
180	17 September 1868	James Murray Davidson Mary Jane Talbot	James Murray Davidson Mary Jane Talbot 💍 1868/8963	Bachelor Spinster	Minister of the Gospel	35 22	North Taieri Dunedin	3 years 3 weeks	In the house of Mr. Gowdie, George Street, Dunedin	2106		17 September 1868	Rev. R. Serymgeaur
181	17 September 1868	James Elliott Jane Hamilton	James Elliott Jane Hamilton 💍 1868/8750 James Davis Jane Hamilton 💍 1868/9638 John Watt Janet Hamilton 💍 1868/9044	Bachelor Spinster	Farm-servant	26 16	Green Island Green Island	4 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of James Hamilton	2033	James Hamilton, father	17 September 1868	Rev. M. Watt
182	18 September 1868	Henry Logan Jessie Houston	Henry Logan Jessie Houston 💍 1868/8756	Bachelor Spinster	Confectioner	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	6 yrs 4 yrs	In the house of John Houston, Great King Street, Dunedin	2035	John Houston, Father	18 September 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
183	18 September 1868	William Mirams Amelia Ann Houghton	William Mirams Amelia Ann Houghton 💍 1868/8753	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	27 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 5 yrs	In the house of Benjamin Houghton, Cargill Street, Dunedin	2034	Benjamin Houghton, Father	18 September 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
184	21 September 1868	Samuel Thomas Alice Jane Forsyth	Samuel Thomas Alice Jane Forsyth 💍 1868/10132	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 26	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 4 months	In St. Paul's Church	1893		21 September 1868	Rev. E. G. Edwards
185	22 September 1868	John Hay Jeanie Cumming	John Hay Jeanie Cumming Fincher 💍 1868/10135	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	34 21	Dunedin Dunedin	4 yrs 4 months	In St. Paul's Church	1894		22 September 1868	Rev. E. G. Edwards
186	22 September 1868	Thomas Leahy Mary Manning	Thomas Leahy Mary Maning 💍 1868/10267	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 3 yrs	In St. Joseph's Church	1938		22 September 1868	Rev. D. Moreau
187	23 September 1868	Alfred Wentworth Annetta Gordon	Alfred Kentworth Annetta Gordon 💍 1868/8888	Bachelor Spinster	Circus rider	27 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 3 days	In the Manse of the Rev. G. Sutherland	2079		23 September 1868	Rev. G. Sutherland
188	24 September 1868	Edward George Winifred Agnes Dolly	Edward Tobias George Winifred Agnes Jolly 💍 1868/10264	Widower Spinster	Publican	49 38	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Joseph's Church	1937		24 September 1868	Rev. D. Moreau

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).