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 578

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
219	4 November 1868	George Graham Jane Taylor	George Graham Jane Taylor 💍 1868/8807	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	38 28	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 2 yrs	Knox Church	2052		4 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
220	4 November 1868	Walter McMillan Catherine Nelson	Walter McMillan Catherine Nelson 💍 1868/8813 Ebenezer Isaac Robinson Catherine Nelson 💍 1868/5597	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	28 28	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 5 yrs	House of Duncan McFarlane, Water Street	2054		4 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
221	7 November 1868	Alexander Devistodale Mary Ann Gilhoolyell		Bachelor Spinster	Miner	38 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church	2053		7 November 1868	Rev. D. M. Stuart
222	10 November 1868	James Parker Laycock Anne Sullivan	James Parker Laycock Anne Sullivan 💍 1868/10342	Widower Spinster	Housekeeper	36 27	Dunedin Dunedin	9 days 1 week	Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1966		10 November 1868	Registrar of Marriages
223	10 November 1868	Matthew Young Sarah Maria Baxter	Matthew Young Sarah Maria Baxter 💍 1868/10087	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	29 18	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Manse of Rev. Thomas Burns	1876	Samuel Baxter, father	10 November 1868	Rev. Thomas Burns
224	12 November 1868	George Walter Adams Mary Wilson	George Walter Adams Mary Wilson 💍 1868/10144	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	25 22	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 6 weeks	St. Paul's Church	1899		12 November 1868	Rev. G. G. Edwards
225	12 November 1868	William Thomas Jessep Ellen Drake	William Thomas Jessep Ellen Drake 💍 1868/10090	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 16	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 9 yrs	Manse of Rev. Thomas Burns	1879	John Drake, father	12 November 1868	Rev. Thomas Burns
226	13 November 1868	John Meade Bridget O'Halloran	John Meade Bridget O'Halloran 💍 1868/10279	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	14 months 10 months	St. Joseph's Church	1942		13 November 1868	Rev. D. Moreau
227	13 November 1868	Thomas Hunter Janet Petrie	Thomas Hunter Janet Petrie 💍 1868/8816	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	32 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	House of Mrs. Petrie, Mornington	2055		13 November 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).