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 588

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
180	15 September 1870	Michael Flannery Hannah Searly	Michael Flannery Hannah Leary 💍 1870/8754	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	32 26	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 7 years	In St Josephs Church Dunedin	15 September 1870	Rev D. Moreau
181	16 September 1870	William Henry Haydon Kate Josephine McGrath	William Henry Haydon Kate Josephine McGrath 💍 1870/8910	Bachelor Spinster	Licensed Victualler	34 30	Dunedin Port Chalmers	2 years 7 years	Dodson Provincial Hotel Port Chalmers	16 September 1870	Rev D Moreau
182	19 September 1870	Michael Sammon Ellen Hogan	Michael Sammon Ellen Hogan 💍 1870/8757	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 30	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 7 years	In St Josephs Church Dunedin	19 September 1870	Rev D. Moreau
183	21 September 1870	John Jack Isabella Ferguson Mickle	John Jack Isabella Ferguson Mickle 💍 1870/8604	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	30 22	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 1 year	In the house of John Jack Dunedin	21 September 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart
184	23 September 1870	Herbert Edwards Mary Elizabeth Houghton	Herbert Edwards Mary Elizabeth Houghton 💍 1870/4659	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	27 23	Dunedin Dunedin	6 days 8 years	In the house of Mr Houghton Andersons Bay	23 September 1870	Rev J. Williams
185	26 September 1870	William McKnown Mary Ann Barter	William McKeown Mary Ann Baxter 💍 1870/8343 William Ford Mary Ann Corley 💍 1870/4956 William McIlraith Mary Ann Jack 💍 1870/4236 William Morgan Mary Ann Peckham 💍 1871/4845 William Dempsey Mary Ann Blackmore 💍 1870/7674 William Scown Mary Lett 💍 1870/5673	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	30 26	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 3 years	In the house of James Barter Lees Street Dunedin	26 September 1870	Rev G. Sutherland
186	28 September 1870	Horatio Brainger Elizabeth Huntington	Horatio William Laurell Elizabeth Huntington 💍 1870/8238	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 27	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 7 years	In All Saints Church Dunedin	28 September 1870	Rev B.H. Brainger
187	30 September 1870	John Read Laura Sarah Membery	John Glendinning Laura Sarah Hember 💍 1870/8607	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 2 years	In the house of Mr Kingcombe Heptell Dunedin	30 September 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart
188	30 September 1870	John Orr Isabella Strachan	John Orr Isabella Strachan 💍 1870/8610	Widower Spinster	Engineer	28 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 3 weeks	In Knox Church Dunedin	30 September 1870	Rev D.M. Stuart

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).