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 594

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
144	9 August 1871	Benjamen Perry Julia Albion	Benjamin Perry Julia Albion 💍 1871/3860	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	26 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 10 months	St Josephs Church			9 August 1871	Right Revd. P. Moran
145	14 August 1871	Thomas Curran Bridget Harmajan	Thomas Cunan Bridget Flanagan 💍 1871/9306 Thomas O'Dowd Bridget Hanrahan 💍 1871/8496 Thomas Fagan Bridget Mary Smith 💍 1871/4191	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	31 28	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 days	St Josephs Church			14 August 1871	Right Revd. P. Moran
146	15 August 1871	John Robert Jones Mary Somerville Haig	John Robert Jones Mary Somerville Haig 💍 1871/9318	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	32 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 6 days	In the Baptist Church			15 August 1871	Rev. John Williams
147	15 August 1871	William John Harrison Mary Jerry	William John Harrison Mary Terry 💍 1871/9321	Bachelor Spinster	Runholder	35 19	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 8 years	In the House of Mr Richard Jerry, Albany Street		Richard Jerry, Father	15 August 1871	Rev. John Williams
148	15 August 1871	William Latham Jane Sparks	William Latham Jane Sparks 💍 1871/7815	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	35 34	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 3 months	In the House of Rev. George Sutherland	340		15 August 1871	Rev. George Sutherland
149	16 August 1871	George Watson Small Jane Anne Smith	George Watson Smith Jane Anne Smith 💍 1871/7935	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	43 33	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 18 months	Knox Church	381		30 August 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
150	17 August 1871	Peter Black Janet Arnal	Peter Black Janet Arnal 💍 1871/9324	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 7 years	In the House of William Arnal, Marri Hill near Dunedin			17 August 1871	Rev. John Williams
151	24 August 1871	Peter McGregor Margaret Campbell	Peter McGregor Margaret Campbell 💍 1871/7932	Widower Widow	Laborer	47 38	Blueskin Blueskin	10 years 10 years	In the House of the Rev. D.M. Stuart	380		24 August 1871	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).