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 576

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
202	12 October 1868	George Wolme Smith Louisa Coleman	George McLune Smyth Louisa Coleman 💍 1868/4465	Bachelor Spinster	barrier	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 11 months	Manse of the Rev. Thomas Burns D.D. Dunedin	1875		12 October 1868	Rev. Thomas Burns
203	13 October 1868	John McKenzie Janny Bretton	John McKenzie Fanny Gretton 💍 1868/8774	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 month	Knox Church Dunedin	2041	no person to give consent	13 October 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
204	13 October 1868	John Keown Susan Kennedy	John Keown Susan Kennedy 💍 1868/8771	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church Dunedin	2040		13 October 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
205	13 October 1868	George Wilson Agnes Renton	George Wilson Agnes Renton 💍 1868/8786	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 17	Blueskin Blueskin	10 yrs 6 months	House of Andrew McKenzie, settler, Blueskin	2045	John Renton, father	13 October 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
206	15 October 1868	Thomas Gilchrist Miriam Bouton	Thomas Gilchrist Miriam Bowton 💍 1868/10171	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 7 days	House of Alexander McLandish, St David Street, Dunedin	1906		15 October 1868	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
207	21 October 1868	William Bournie Stewart Rachel Hepburn	William Downie Stewart Rachel Hepburn 💍 1868/8801	Bachelor Spinster	Barrister at Law	26 23	Dunedin Wakari	6 yrs 18 yrs	House of Mr J. Hepburn, Wakari	2050		21 October 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
208	21 October 1868	James Wright Mary Smellie	James Wright Mary Smellie 💍 1868/8792	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	25 18	Dunedin North Taieri	3 months 9 yrs	House of William Wright, North Taieri	2047	James Smellie, father	21 October 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
209	23 October 1868	James Lindsay Newbigging Catherine Malony	James Lindsay Newbigging Catherine Maloney 💍 1868/8789	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Knox Church Dunedin	68/2046		23 October 1868	Revd. D. M. Stuart
210	23 October 1868	John Blackie Barbara Henderson	John Blackie Barbara Henderson McLeod 💍 1868/9068	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 28	West Taieri Dunedin	3 yrs 9 months	House of Mr Donald McLeod, Mornington	2142		23 October 1868	Rev. William Will

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).