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 583

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
135	1 July 1870	Francis Hannagan Mary Ann Cairns	Francis Flannagan Mary Ann Cairns 💍 1870/8727	Widower Spinster	Sailor	45 38	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 3 days	In St Joseph's Church, Dunedin		1 July 1870	Rev D. Moreau
136	4 July 1870	Thomas Popham Braid Mary Morris	Thomas Orpheum Braid Mary Morris 💍 1870/8811	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	26 19	Andersons Bay Peninsula	13 years 12 yrs	St Paul's Church, Dunedin	Thomas Morris, father	4 July 1870	Rev E.G. Edwards
137	9 July 1870	Arthur Roberts Jemima Tolmie	Arthur Roberts Jamesina Tolmie 💍 1870/8283	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	25 20	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 3 years	In the house of Mrs Dawes, Dowling St, Dunedin		9 July 1870	Rev D. Johnstone
138	12 July 1870	Charles William Henry Chilcott Bessy Hutchings	Charles William Henry Chilcott Bessy Hutchings 💍 1870/8559	Widower Spinster	Lapidary	32 28	Dunedin Dunedin	16 months 4 months	In Knox Church, Dunedin		12 July 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
139	13 July 1870	John Ludford Annie Gallie	John Ludford Annie Gallie 💍 1870/8229	Bachelor Spinster	Journalist	27 20	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 20 yrs	In the house of John Gallie, Leith St, Dunedin	John Gallie, father	13 July 1870	Rev I Williams
140	13 July 1870	William Wood Annie Melvin	William Wood Annie Melvin 💍 1870/8562	Widower Spinster	Bottler	38 22	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 3 years	In the house of William Wood, Cumberland St, Dunedin		13 July 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
141	15 July 1870	John Meek Mary Stalker	John Meek Mary Stalker 💍 1870/8565	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 30	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 1 year	In the house of John Meek, Great King St, Dunedin		15 July 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
142	15 July 1870	Andrew Walker Bremner Catherine White	Andrew Walker Bremner Catherine White 💍 1870/8574	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 8 years	In the house of James Wilson White, Great King St, Dunedin	James Wilson White, father	16 July 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
143	18 July 1870	James Michie Isabella Alexander	James Michie Isabella Alexander 💍 1870/8373	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 27	Primrose Hill Dunedin	7 yrs 8 years	House of Mrs Alexander, Maitland St, Dunedin		18 July 1870	Rev Thomas Burns D.D.

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).