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 579

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
199	10 September 1869	Duncan Scott Catherine Gloag	Duncan Scott Catherine Gloag 💍 1869/8919	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	23 19	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 6 days	St. Paul's Church	1593	Dr. Furgoon	10 September 1869	Rev. C. Edwards
200	11 September 1869	James Sector Ann Officer	James Sector Ann Officer 💍 1869/8523	Bachelor Spinster	Boot-maker	34 27	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 1 week	Knox Church	1456		11 September 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
201	13 September 1869	Alexander Wallace Elizabeth M'Lorrow	Alexander Wallace Elizabeth McCrory 💍 1869/8727	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	30 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 yrs	St. Joseph's Church	1527		13 September 1869	Rev. D. Moreau
202	15 September 1869	George Leslie Mary Sullivan	George Leslie Mary Sullivan 💍 1869/8730 George Pilcher Sarah Sullivan 💍 1869/6147	Widower Spinster	Farmer	32 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 6 weeks	St. Joseph's Church	1528		15 September 1869	Rev. D. Moreau
203	16 September 1869	John Barr Isabella Davidson	John Carr Isabella Davidson 💍 1869/8529	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright	21 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 2 yrs.	Knox Church	1455	No person to give consent	16 September 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
204	17 September 1869	George Oswald Blayton Maria Barbara Joord	George Oswald Clayton Maria Barbara Foord 💍 1869/8856	Bachelor Spinster	Builder	26 17	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 13 yrs.	Manse of Rev. A. R. Fitchett	1571	James Good, father	17 September 1869	Rev. A. R. Fitchett
205	17 September 1869	Charles Cornelius Isabella Paterson	Charles Cornelius Isabella Paterson 💍 1869/8538	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	22 19	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 10 yrs	Knox Church	1461	No person to give consent	17 September 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
206	18 September 1869	Alexander Pearson Mary Williamson	Alexander Pearson Mary Williamson 💍 1869/8526	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church	1457		18 September 1869	Rev. D. M. Stuart
207	18 September 1869	John Shears Bray Flora McKellop	John Shears Gray Flora McKellop 💍 1869/8532	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	23 24	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 7 months	House of Thomas Mills, Hyndman and Co Valley	1459		18 September 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).