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 584

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
144	19 July 1870	George Chapman Susan Meikan	George Chapman Susan Meihan 💍 1870/8733	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	20 years 10 months	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin		20 July 1870	Revd. D. Moreau
145	19 July 1870	William Hendly Jane Storey	William Hendley Jane Storey 💍 1870/8814	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	32 24	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 4 years	In St Pauls Church, Dunedin		19 July 1870	Rev E. G. Edwards
146	20 July 1870	James Scott Alexander Maggie Kincaid	James Scott Alexander Maggie Kincaid 💍 1870/4650	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 12 years	In the house of Mrs Kincaid, Constitution St, Dunedin		20 July 1870	Revd. J. Williams
147	21 July 1870	Richard Atkinson Bertha Jane Bates	Richard Atkinson Bertha Jane Bates 💍 1870/8577	Widower Widow	Storeman	36 26	Dunedin Dunedin	9 years 4 years	In Knox Church, Dunedin		21 July 1870	Rev D. M. Stuart
148	21 July 1870	Charles Joseph Cooze Mary Denholm Sanderson Cunningham	Charles Joseph Cooze Mary Denholm Sanderson Cunningham 💍 1870/8568	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 5 years	In the house of Charles Joseph Cooze, George St Dunedin		21 July 1870	Rev D. M. Stuart
149	22 July 1870	John Porteous Annie Auld Rennie	John Porteous Annie Auld Rennie 💍 1870/8571	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	24 24	Kaihiku, [UNCLEAR Wairepa] Dunedin	3 years 2 years	In the house of Mr Rennie, Elm Row, Dunedin		22 July 1870	Rev D. M. Stuart
150	26 July 1870	James Meehan Connell Caroline Rosa Steele	James Meehan Connell Caroline Rosa Steele 💍 1870/8736	Bachelor Spinster	Road Contractor	34 21	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 3 days	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin		26 July 1870	Rev D. Moreau
151	27 July 1870	Peter Dougal Catherine Rutherford	Peter Dougal Catherine Rutherford 💍 1870/8853	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	25 26	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 10 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin		27 July 1870	Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
152	29 July 1870	James Hardie Jessie Wilson	James Hardie Jessie Wilson 💍 1870/8580	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	29 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 8 years	In the house of Robert Wilson, Stafford St, Dunedin	Robert Wilson, Father	29 July 1870	Revd. 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 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).