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 575

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
10	12 January 1871	Alexander Findlay Ann Brown	Alexander Findlater Ann Brown 💍 1871/6564	Bachelor Widow	Storeman	38 42	Dunedin Dunedin	4 Years 8 Years	the House of the Rev. Williams Dunedin	M1/911		January 12	Rev. I. Williams
11	16 January 1871	William Storey Margaret Brown	William Storey Margaret Brown 💍 1871/6216 William Cowern Mary Brown 💍 1871/4872	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 22	North Harbor Blueskin Dunedin	4 Years 2 Weeks	the House of William Bendly Kensington	M2/9		January 16	Rev. R. Soupingeau
12	18 January 1871	Edwin Goodall Georgiana Sutton	Edwin Goodale Georgina Sutton 💍 1871/6567	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 25	Caversham Caversham	1 month 10 Years	the House of John Goodall Caversham	M1/912		January 18	Rev. I. Williams
13	19 January 1871	John Watson Grieve Mary Nelson	John Watson Grieve Mary Nelson 💍 1871/6570	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	40 29	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 Years	the House of Mary Nelson Castle sheet Dunedin	M1/913		January 19	Rev. Williams
14	21 January 1871	Sylvester Whitty Margaret Hickey	Sylvester Whitty Margaret Hickie 💍 1871/6168	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	25 29	Dunedin Dunedin	1 Year 4 Years	St. Joseph's Church Dunedin	M1/915		January 21	Rev. D. M'Lorean
15	21 January 1871	Henry Parker Chapman Ella Jane Fergusson	Henry Parker Chapman Ella Jane Fergusson 💍 1871/6033	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	33 23	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 days	St Paul's Church, Dunedin	M1/928		January 21	Rev. E. J. Edwards
16	23 January 1871	Henry Thomas Tapley Daro Anna Moir	Henry Thomas Tazly Dare Anna Moir 💍 1871/6102	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	28 25	Dunedin Dunedin	10 Years 5 Years	The House of Henry Thomas Tapley Daro Leith St. Dunedin	M1/931		January 23	Rev. D. M. Stuart
17	24 January 1871	Matthew Gill Eglantine Lilias Spence	Mathew Gile Eglantine Lilian Spence 💍 1871/6573	Bachelor Spinster	Ironmonger	30 17	Dunedin Dunedin	One month 8 Years	the House of Spence George St. Dunedin	M1/914	Charlotte Spence mother of Eglantine Lilias Spence gives relative consent	January 24	Rev. I. Williams
18	26 January 1871	John Munro Ann Campbell	John Munro Anne Campbell 💍 1871/6108	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	30 29	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	his dwelling House of Cumberland Dunedin	M1/953		January 26	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).