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 585

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
153	1 August 1870	Daniel Melican Mary Henry	Daniel Melican Mary Henry 💍 1870/8739	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	29 21	Dunedin Dunedin	8yrs 6yrs	St Josephs Church	1 August 1870	Rev. D. Morgan
154	4 August 1870	John Dabwil Mary Barr	John Dalziell Mary Barr 💍 1870/8328	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	31 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 months	In the house of James Barr Queen St Dunedin	14 August 1870	Rev. George Sutherland
155	8 August 1870	William Gordon Emily Henderson	William Gordon Emily Henderson 💍 1870/8856	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 21 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	8 August 1870	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
156	13 August 1870	George Mingay Aldrich Matilda Annue Williams	George Murray Aldrich Matilda Annie Williams 💍 1870/8817	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	37 29	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 8 yrs	St. Pauls Church Dunedin	13 August 1870	Rev E.H. Edwards
157	13 August 1870	James Bossens Helen Smith	James Cossens Helen Smith 💍 1870/8583 James Briggs Finney Ellen Smith 💍 1870/9234	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	35 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 5 days	In the house of Mr Pollie Moray Place Dunedin	16 August 1870	Rev. D.M. Stuart
158	15 August 1870	Michael McKey Margaret Campbell	Michael McKey Margaret Campbell 💍 1870/8742	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	28 22	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 4 days	St Josephs Church Dunedin	15 August 1870	Rev. D. Moreau
159	16 August 1870	Robert Phimester Annie Broadfoot	Robert Phimester Annie Broadfoot 💍 1870/8262	Bachelor Spinster	Coach Driver	23 21	Dunedin Caversham	9 yrs 6 months	In the house of Mrs Gray Hillside	16 August 1870	Rev. R. Scrimgeour
160	19 August 1870	John Hilly Eliza Wellesley Ferguson	John Tilley Eliza Wellesley Ferguson 💍 1870/8307	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	33 29	Port Chalmers Dunedin	10 days 1 year	In the house of Mr Port Chalmers Calvert Queen St Dunedin	19 August 1870	Rev. A.R. Fitchett
161	19 August 1870	William Solly Elizabeth Clarkson	William Jolly Elizabeth Clarkson 💍 1870/8331	Bachelor Widow	Fisherman	41 42	Dunedin Dunedin	9yrs 10 yrs	In the Manse of the Rev S Sutherland	19 August 1870	Rev S Sutherland

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).