Intentions to Marry, 1871

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840383, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, November 15 2024

Page 578 B

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1871

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
55	21 March 1871	Edward Heenan Ann Steele Nicolson	Edward Heenan Ann Steele Nicolson 💍 1871/6153	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	27 Years 16 Years	House Heele Street Dunedin	5 days 7 Years	House of Ralph Steele Nicolson, Hanover Street	71/771	Ralph Steele Nicolson gives consent, father of Ann Steele Nicolson	24 March 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
56	24 March 1871	William Todd Janet Cochrane	William Todd Janet Cochran 💍 1871/6162	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 Years 22 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church Dunedin	71/772		24 March 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
57	25 March 1871	Henry Mecaiah West Elizabeth Jane Wilson	Henry Micaiah West Elizabeth Jane Wilson 💍 1871/6165	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	29 Years 23 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 Weeks 4 days	Crown Hotel Rattray St Dunedin	71/773		25 March 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
58	28 March 1871	George Brown Barbara Shand	George Brown Barbara Shand 💍 1871/9165	Widower Spinster	Farmer	36 Years 30 Years	Green Island West Taieri	2 Weeks 10 Years	House Gelvethand Green Island West Taieri			28 March 1871	Rev. M. Watt
59	30 March 1871	Francis Towerville Hellen Stephens	Francis Somerville Helen Stephens 💍 1871/6192	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	26 Years 24 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 Years 6 months	Water of Leith Hotel, Dunedin	72-/714		17 April 1871	Rev. E. H. Granger
60	30 March 1871	Colin Ferguson Clark Catherine Eagerly	Colin Ferguson Clark Catherine Eagerty 💍 1871/8907	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 Years 28 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 Weeks 1 Week	Church Dunedin	71/783		30 April 1871	Rev. D. Moreau
61	31 March 1871	Joseph Crosbie Jane Shealey	Joseph Crosbie Jane Shelsey 💍 1871/6579	Widower Spinster	Storeman	31 Years 24 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 Years 2 Years	House Gow Clarendon Street Dunedin	71/716	Sent by her father William Shealey through daughter Mrs Rapson	31 March 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
62	31 March 1871	Edward Samuel Broughton Janet Gibson	Edward Samuel Broughton Janet Gibson 💍 1871/6045	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Keeper	34 Years 35 Years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 days 12 days	St Pauls Church Dunedin	71/732		31 March 1871	Rev. E. G. Edwards

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).