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 580

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
123	14 June 1870	Samuel Gill Ellen Maria Sturdy	Samuel Gill Ellen Maria Sturdy 💍 1870/8808	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	36 yrs 26 yrs	Portobello Dunedin	7 yrs 7 yrs	In St Pauls Church, Dunedin		14 June 1870	Revd E.G. Edwards
124	15 June 1870	Daniel Turner Margaret Andrew Edgar	Daniel Turner Margaret Andrew Edgar 💍 1870/8550	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 yrs 18 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 7 yrs	In the house of James Edgar, Albany Street, Dunedin	James Edgar, Father	15 June 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
125	15 June 1870	William Smith Miriam Turvey	William Smith Miriam Turvey 💍 1870/8304	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	30 yrs 23 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 yrs	In the Wesleyan Church, Dunedin			This Marriage is returned by Mr Fitchett West Men
126	17 June 1870	Wilson Heaps Julia Gertrude Isabel Haggitt	Wilson Heaps Julia Gertrude Isabel Haggitt 💍 1870/4644	Bachelor Spinster	Inspector of Distilleries	30 yrs 19 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 4 yrs	In All Saints Church, Dunedin	Mary Anne Haggitt, Mother	17 June 1870	Revd. E.H. Granger
127	20 June 1870	John Ferguson Isabella Stewart	John Ferguson Isabella Stewart 💍 1870/8541	Widower Spinster	Gardener	50 yrs 46 yrs	North East Valley North East Valley	8 yrs 8 yrs	In Knox Church, Dunedin		20 June 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
128	21 June 1870	John Edmonds Honora Melican	John Edmonds Honora Melican 💍 1870/8748	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	27 yrs 22 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 7 months	In St Josephs Church, Dunedin		16 July 1870	Revd. D. Moreau
129	21 June 1870	Angus McGregor Jessie Brown	Angus McGregor Jessie Brown 💍 1870/8544	Widower Spinster	Blacksmith	37 yrs 27 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 18 monthss	In the British Hotel, George Street, Dunedin		21 June 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
130	24 June 1870	Alexander Anderson Ann Davidson Forbes	Alexander Anderson Ann Davidson Forbes 💍 1870/8547	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	35 yrs 32 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 weeks	In Knox Church, Dunedin		24 June 1870	Revd. D.M. Stuart
131	28 June 1870	Archibald Carrick Mary Ann Anderson	Archibald Carrick Mary Ann Anderson 💍 1870/8553	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 yrs 27 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2 weeks	In Knox Church, Dunedin		28 June 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).