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 573A

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
53	28 February 1870	Michael Walsh Abby Iners	Michael Walsh Abby Jevers 💍 1870/8697	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	30 yrs 25 yrs	Green Island Green Island	1 year 4 months	In St Josephs Church Dunedin		28 February 1870	Rev. D Moreau
54	28 February 1870	Charles Boellie Maria McGearr	Charles Boelke Maria McGerr 💍 1870/8700	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinetmaker	30 yrs 26 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	7 yrs 4 yrs	In St Josephs Church Dunedin		28 February 1870	Rev. D Moreau
55	1 March 1870	Thomas Barrodus Jemina Randall	Thomas Carrodas Jemima Randall 💍 1870/8451	Widower Widow	Wool sorter	30 yrs 27 yrs	Kaikorai Wakari	3 months 5 yrs	In the house of Jemina Randall Wakari	Jemina Randall	1 March 1870	Rev. M Stuart
56	2 March 1870	Roderick McDonald Margaret Mackay	Roderick McDonald Margaret McKay 💍 1870/8355	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	33 yrs 27 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	8 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of Roderick McDonald Elm Row Dunedin		2 March 1870	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
57	5 March 1870	Procter Eliza Mary Ann Young	George Maitland Proctor Eliza Mary Ann Young 💍 1870/8295	Bachelor Spinster	Express Driver	23 yrs 16 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	4 1/2 yrs 1 year	In Brighton house Mr Jones Stafford Street Dunedin	George Walter Young - Father	5 March 1870	Rev. A R Fitchett
58	7 March 1870	Henry Sherwill Sarah Grainger	Henry Sherwill Sarah Grainger 💍 1870/8319	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 yrs 26 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	2 yrs 2 yrs	In the house of Rev. G Sutherland Dunedin		7 March 1870	Rev. G Sutherland
59	8 March 1870	James Jeffrey Elizabeth Spilhards	James Jeffreys Elizabeth Spillards 💍 1870/8844	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	26 yrs 26 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	5 yrs 8 yrs	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin		8 March 1870	Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
60	9 March 1870	George Cruickshank Isabella Bagrie	George Cruickshanks Isabella Bagrie 💍 1870/8358	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	36 yrs 33 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 yrs	In the house of Isabella Bagrie Smith Street Dunedin		9 March 1870	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.
61	9 March 1870	George Towers Janet Mayson	George Divers Janet Mayson 💍 1870/8361	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	30 yrs 23 yrs	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In the house of Isabella Bagrie Smith Street Dunedin		9 March 1870	Rev. Thomas Burns D.D.

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).