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 575

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
77	1 April 1870	Michael Thomas Spratt Maria Louisa Bell	Michael Thomas Spratt Maria Louisa Bell 💍 1870/8703	Widower Widow	Gentleman	38 35	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 7 yrs	In St Josephs Church Dunedin		1 April 1870	Rev D. Moreau
78	2 April 1870	Andrew Nelson Charlotte Black	Andrew Nielson Charlotte Black 💍 1870/8481	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	21 19	Dunedin Dunedin	6 yrs 10 yrs	In the house of Ann Black Dunedin	Ann Black, Mother	2 April 1870	D. M. Stuart
79	4 April 1870	John Taylor Sarah Ann York	John Taylor Sarah Ann York 💍 1870/8796	Bachelor Spinster	Hosier	30 17	Dunedin Dunedin	1 yr 6 yrs	In St. Paul's Church Dunedin	No person [UNCLEAR] consent	4 April 1870	G. Edwards
80	5 April 1870	William Thomson Kate Mary Morgan	William Thomson Kate Mary Morgan 💍 1870/8484	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	29 26	Dunedin Dunedin	1 1/2 yrs 4 yrs	Knox Church Dunedin		5 April 1870	D. M. Stuart
81	6 April 1870	James Sly Charlotte Thacker	James Sly Charlotte Thacker 💍 1870/8277	Widower Widow	Bootmaker	54 48	Caversham Caversham	5 yrs 2 months	In the house of Rev Johnstone. Johnstone Street Dunedin		6 April 1870	D. Johnstone
82	9 April 1870	Henry Edward Tansley Mary Ann Lough	Henry Edward Tansley Mary Ann Tough 💍 1870/8301	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Wesleyan Church Dunedin		9 April 1870	R. Fitchett
83	9 April 1870	Charles Hatfield Statham Ann Sutton Hemsley	Charles Hadfield Statham Ann Sutton Hemsley 💍 1870/4632	Bachelor Spinster	Book Keeper	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	7 yrs 7 yrs	In All Saints Church	James Hemsley, Father	9 April 1870	Rev E. H. Granger
84	13 April 1870	Robert Paterson Elizabeth Morrison	Robert Patterson Elizabeth Morrison 💍 1870/8364	Widower Spinster	Merchant	37 21	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 14 yrs	In the house of Mr Morrison Lee Street Dunedin		13 April 1870	Thomas Burns
85	13 April 1870	Alexander Fordyce Hellen Discon	Alexander Fordyce Helen Dixon 💍 1870/8496	Bachelor Spinster	Groom	29 26	Green Island Dunedin	4 yrs 1 yr	In the house of Edward Bowes Cargill Esquire Walker St Dunedin		13 April 1870	Rev D. M. Stuart
86	14 April 1870	Stephen Tubman Mary O'Connell	Stephen Tubman Mary O'Connell 💍 1870/8706	Bachelor Spinster	Flax dresser	33 30	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 6 weeks	In St Joseph's Church Dunedin		14 April 1870	Rev D. M. Moreau

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).