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 592

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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
198	19 October 1870	James Williams Louisa Richardson	James Williams Louisa Richardson 💍 1870/8826	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	29 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 6 months	St Pauls Church	No persons to give consent	19 October 1870	Rev E G Edwards
199	20 October 1870	Elijah Harrop Eliza Bridget Foster	Elijah Harrop Eliza Bridget Foster 💍 1870/8631	Widower Spinster	Jeweller	36 19	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 19 years	In the house of Mr Foster, George St, Dunedin	H A Foster, father of Eliza Bridget Foster	20 October 1870	Rev D M Stuart
200	22 October 1870	John Stoddart Agnes Jane Famillon	John Stoddart Agnes Jane Familton 💍 1870/8175	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	28 18	Dunedin Hampden	3 days 7 years	In the house of Alexander Famillon, Hampden, Otepopo	Alexander Famillon, father of Agnes Jane Famillon	22 October 1870	Rev J Ryley
201	25 October 1870	William Chisholm Eliza Arkle	William Chisholm Eliza Arkle 💍 1870/8634	Widower Spinster	Farmer	37 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the house of Mr McLaren, Howe St, Dunedin		25 October 1870	Rev D M Stuart
202	28 October 1870	Robert Buchanan Jessie McPherson	Robert Buchanan Jessie McPherson 💍 1870/8640 Robert Sutherland Christina McPherson 💍 1870/9027	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer	32 33	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 5 years	In Mr Carsons house, Jail St, Dunedin		28 October 1870	Rev D M Stuart
203	28 October 1870	David See Jessie Hodge	David Lee Jessie Hodge 💍 1870/8643	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	29 22	Port Chalmers Dunedin	7 months 2 years	In the house of Peter Walker, Castle St, Dunedin		28 October 1870	Rev D M Stuart
204	29 October 1870	John Jones Elizabeth Leckie	John Jones Elizabeth Leckie 💍 1870/8271	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	35 21	Dunedin Anderson Bay	3 days 13 years	In the house of Stewart Leckie, Anderson Bay, Dunedin		29 October 1870	Rev J H MacNaughton
205	31 October 1870	John Chambers Mary McLeod	John Chambers Mary McLeod 💍 1870/8637	Bachelor Spinster	Hawker	32 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In Knox Church, Dunedin		31 October 1870	Rev D M Stuart
206	3 November 1870	Marcus Ryrie Ellen Malcolm	Marcus Ryris Ellen Malcolm 💍 1870/8265	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	34 29	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 days	In the house of Mr George Gow, Melville St, Dunedin		3 November 1870	Rev R Scrymgeour

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).