Intentions to Marry, 1870

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840382, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 573

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
44	18 February 1870	Gavin Illingworth Eliza Clements	Gavin Illingworth Eliza Clements 💍 1870/8445	Bachelor Spinster	Barpenter	27 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 2 yrs	the house of David Sandeman Filleul Street Dunedin		18 February 1870	Rev. D. M. Stuart
45	19 February 1870	William Stevenson Julia Rogers	William Stevenson Julia Rodgers 💍 1870/8433	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	39 30	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 8 yrs	Knox Church Dunedin		19 February 1870	Rev. D. M. Stuart
46	21 February 1870	Michael McGarry Ann Boylan	Michael McGarry Ann Boyhan 💍 1870/8694	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 22	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 1/2 yrs	St. Joseph's Church Dunedin		21 February 1870	Rev. D. Moreau
47	21 February 1870	Thomas Farrell Sarah Hodges	Thomas Farrell Sarah Hodges 💍 1870/8316	Bachelor Widow	Publican	32 30	Dunedin Dunedin	10 yrs 8 yrs	the house of the Rev. G. Sutherland Dunedin		21 February 1870	Rev. G. Sutherland
48	22 February 1870	George Curtis Janet Pellis	George Curtis Janet Ellis 💍 1870/4623	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 18	Green Island Green Island	1 year 8 months	in the house of Robert McCracken Green Island	John Pellis, Father	9 March 1870	Rev. M. Watt
49	23 February 1870	John Lomas Elizabeth Atkinson	John Lomas Elizabeth Atkinson 💍 1870/8793	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	34 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St Paul's Church Dunedin		23 February 1870	Rev. D. L. Edwards
50	23 February 1870	Walter Henry Pearson Sarah Eleanor Hudson	Walter Henry Pearson Sarah Eleanor Hudson 💍 1870/8235	Bachelor Spinster	Commissioner of Crown Lands, Invercargill	39 32	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 year	All Saints Church Dunedin		23 February 1870	Rev. E. G. Granger
51	24 February 1870	Christian Bode Julia Elizabeth Agen	Christian Bode Julia Elizabeth Agen 💍 1870/8448	Widower Widow	Hairdresser	40 32	Dunedin Dunedin	7 yrs 6 yrs	In the house of Mr. Krull, Great King Street, Dunedin		24 February 1870	Rev. D. M. Stuart
52	24 February 1870	William Livingston Mary Grace Haughton	William Livingston Mary Grace Haughton 💍 1870/8442	Bachelor Widow	Baker	34 33	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 3 days	In the house of Alexander Boots George Street, Dunedin		24 February 1870	Rev. D. M. Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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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).