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 577

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
28	9 February 1871	Frank William James Elizabeth Pearse	Frank William Garner Elizabeth Pearce 💍 1871/6231	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	25 28	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 5 Years	the office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	M 74/796	9 February 1871	The Registrar of Marriages Dunedin
29	9 February 1871	John Douglas Mary Hill	John Dougal Mary Hill 💍 1871/6204	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	26 23	Dunedin Dolling st Dunedin	9 Years 23 Years	the House of Mary Hill	M 74/787	9 February 1871	Sutherland
30	16 February 1871	Edward Oberry Christina Dewar	Edward Oberry Christina Dewar 💍 1871/6129	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	36 24	Dunedin Dewar Royal Terrace, Dunedin	8 Years 2 Years	House of Christina Dewar	M 74/760	16 February 1871	Rev. D. M. Stuart
31	21 February 1871	George William Prietor Ellen Foley	George William Prictor Ellen Foley 💍 1871/6177	Bachelor Spinster	Warder	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	12 Years 8 Years	St Joseph's Church	M 74/778	21 February 1871	Rev. D. Moreau
32	21 February 1871	Thomas Hasself Jane Elloir	Thomas Hussey Jane Moir 💍 1871/6174	Bachelor Spinster	Cook, Hospital	39 23	Dunedin Dunedin	8 Years 8 Years	St Joseph's Church, Dunedin	M 74/779	21 February 1871	Rev. D. Moreau
33	21 February 1871	John Newton Storey Margaret Battersby	John Newton Storry Margaret Battisby 💍 1871/6219	Widower Spinster	Tentmaker	36 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 76 Years	House of Mr Caldevell, Port Chalmers	M 74/792	21 February 1871	Rev. N. Scrimgeour
34	22 February 1871	Henry Thomas Smith Elizabeth Horatia McLeish	Henry Thomas Smith Elizabeth Louisa McGrath 💍 1871/6186	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 8 Years	All Saints	M 74/781	22 February 1871	Rev. S. Fraser
35	23 February 1871	Robert Green Helen Duncan	Gilbert Green Helen Duncan 💍 1871/6132	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 22	Otepopo Dunedin	2 Years 4 months	House of Mr Anderson Otepopo	M 74/7461	23 February 1871	Rev D. M. Stuart
36	23 February 1871	Duncan McLellan Norah O'Connell	Duncan McLellan Norah O'Connell 💍 1871/6180	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	31 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St Joseph's Church Dunedin	M 7/79	23 February 1871	Rev. D. Moreau

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).