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 594

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1870

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
215	16 November 1870	Thomas Barclay Margaret Atkinson	Thomas Barclay Margaret Atkinson 💍 1870/8274	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	37 Years 31 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 1 Week	In the House of John Somerville, Andersons Bay		16 November 1870	Revd. J.H. McNaughton
216	18 November 1870	Archibald Clarke Isabella Neil	Archibald Clark Isabella Neil 💍 1870/8658	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	34 Years 28 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the House of Mrs. Sutherland, Cumberland St, Dunedin		18 November 1870	Revd. D. M. Stuart
217	21 November 1870	John Bremner Elizabeth Wilson	John Bremner Elizabeth Wilson 💍 1870/8661	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper	34 Years 21 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 6 months	In the House of Robert Wilson, George St, Dunedin		21 November 1870	Revd. D. M. Stuart
218	22 November 1870	Michael Crowley Julia Kennedy	Michael Crowley Julia Kennedy 💍 1870/8760	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	25 Years 22 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 weeks 2 months	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin		22 November 1870	Revd. D. Moreau
219	22 November 1870	Robert Long Mary Wood	Robert Long Mary Wood 💍 1870/8664	Widower Spinster	Cab proprietor	32 Years 26 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 Years 4 Years	In the House of Geo Cook, Esqre, Dunedin		22 November 1870	Revd. D. M. Stuart
220	22 November 1870	John Coombs Elizabeth Boyes	[No matching marriage registration has been located]	Bachelor Spinster	Currier	21 Years 24 Years	Caversham Caversham	4 Years 7 Years	In the House of Mr Boyes, Caversham		22 November 1870	Revd. Thomas Burns D.D.
221	23 November 1870	Charles Bannister Green Bridget Teresa Naylon	Charles Bannister Green Bridget Teresa Neylon 💍 1870/8769 Charles Banister Green Bridgett Louisa Neylon 💍 1870/8346	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	32 Years 22 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 Years 3 Years	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin	72/713	23 November 1870	Revd. D. Moreau
222	28 November 1870	George Capstien Jane Seed	George Capstick Jane Seed 💍 1870/8382	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	24 Years 21 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 1 month	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin		28 November 1870	Revd. A. R. Fitchett
223	1 December 1870	John Shannon Honora O'Connor	John Shannon Honora O'Connor 💍 1870/8772	Bachelor Spinster	Soda Water Manufacturer	28 Years 23 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 Years 8 months	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin		1 December 1870	Revd. D. 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 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).