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 603

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
207	24 November 1871	James Kerse Isabella Jane Wood	James Kerse Isabella Jane Wood 💍 1871/8931	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman General Servant	26 26	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 9 days	In the House of James Kerse Senr.	712		24 November 1871	Rev. James Copeland
208	24 November 1871	George Huggins Sarah Anu Bond	George Huggins Sarah Ann Bond 💍 1871/7782	Bachelor Spinster	Draper	27 23	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 11 days	St Paul's Church	712/329		24 November 1871	Rev. E.G. Edwards
209	24 November 1871	Michael McGrath Jane McQuade	Michael McGrath Jane McQuaide 💍 1871/6624	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 3 weeks	St Joseph's Church	711/932	James McQuade, father	27 November 1871	Rev. Dr Moran
210	28 November 1871	David Mason Isabella Lindsay	David Mason Isabella Lindsay 💍 1871/7980	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	37 21	Dunedin North East Valley	2 months 20 years	In the House of Miss Lindsay	711/396		28 November 1871	Rev. DM Stuart
211	6 December 1871	Andrew Harris Maria Stephenson	Andrew Harris Maria Stephenson 💍 1871/7791	Bachelor Spinster	Collier	25 18	Green Island Green Island	4 years 3 months	In the Wesleyan Chapel	711/332	William Stephenson, father	6 December 1871	Rev. Alexander Reid
212	9 December 1871	Gilbert Francis Percy Elizabeth Warren	Gilbert Francis Percy Elizabeth Warren 💍 1871/7983	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	32 29	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 3 days	Knox Church	711/394		9 December 1871	Rev. DM Stuart
213	15 December 1871	James Chisholm Jessie Park	James Chisholm Jessie Park 💍 1871/7986	Bachelor Spinster	Clergyman	29 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 months	In the house of W.S.B. Park	711/399		15 December 1871	Rev. DM Stuart
214	15 December 1871	Duncan Muirhead Catherine Caven	Duncan Muirhead Catherine Caven 💍 1871/7989	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	26 26	Dunedin Caversham	7 years 7 years	Knox Church	711/400		15 December 1871	Rev. DM 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).