Intentions to Marry, 1869

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840381, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 573

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
150	17 July 1869	Murdoch Ross Jane Balder Robertson	Murdoch Ross Jane Calder Robertson 💍 1869/8454	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	24 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 3 yrs	In the house of Charles Robertson, Cairn hill	1432	17 July 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
151	20 July 1869	Alexander Simpson Jane Johnston	Alexander Simpson Jean Johnstone 💍 1869/8778	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	26 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 8 months	In the Manse of the Rev. Thomas Burns	1544	20 July 1869	Rev. Thomas Burns
152	20 July 1869	John M. Innes Ann Waddell	John McInnes Ann Waddell 💍 1869/8781	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	35 34	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 5 yrs	Mr. David Sestis house, Blais Cottage, Elm Row, Dunedin	1545	20 July 1869	Rev. Thomas Burns
153	21 July 1869	Samuel Duncan Margaret Clarke	Samuel Duncan Margaret Clarke 💍 1869/8850	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	30 24	Dunedin Dunedin	7 yrs 9 months	In the Manse of the Rev. A. R. Fitchett, Dunedin	1561	21 July 1869	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
154	21 July 1869	Abel Bent Sarah Morrison	Abel Bent Sarah Morrison 💍 1869/8280	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 yrs 6 yrs	In Manor Lodge, Cargill Street, Dunedin	1370	21 July 1869	Rev. George Sutherland
155	22 July 1869	Archibald Pagan Jane Robertson	Archibald Pagan Jane Robertson 💍 1869/8457	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	38 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1433	22 July 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
156	22 July 1869	Edward Graham Sarah Campbell	Edward Graham Scolon Sarah Campbell 💍 1869/9039	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	34 22	Dunedin Popotunoa	1 month 8 days	In the house of Mr. Campbell, Merrie Creek, Popotunoa	1634	22 July 1869	Rev. Charles Connor
157	23 July 1869	Archibald Farrar Annie McKay	Archibald Garvan Annie McKay 💍 1869/8466	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	27 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1430	23 July 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
158	24 July 1869	Robert Hagan Catherine Howitt	Robert Hagan Catherine Hewitt 💍 1869/8463	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	28 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 6 yrs	In Knox Church, Dunedin	1435	24 July 1869	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).