Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 598

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
151	9 January 1872	Fitzroy Montague Smith Margaret Richardson	Fitzroy Montague Smith Margaret Richardson 💍 1872/7208	Bachelor Widow	LightHouse Keeper	37 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	1478 1868		9 January 1872	William Parker Street, Registrar of Marriages
152	10 January 1872	Joseph Mcewen Emma Mugford Stentiford	Joseph McIver Emma Mugford Stentiford 💍 1872/4797	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Barmaid	24 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 8 years	In the House of Revd. George Sutherland Dunedin	72 1068	William Mugford Stentiford, Father	10 January 1872	Rev. George Sutherland
153	11 January 1872	Alexander Scott Jessie Sandison	Alexander Anderson Scott Jessie Sandison 💍 1872/6992	Bachelor Spinster	Jailor Dressmaker	25 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 12 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin	72/1020		February 2	William Parker Street, Registrar of Marriages
154	12 January 1872	Robert Beatson Margaret Bean Macpherson	Robert Beatson Margaret Bean McPherson 💍 1872/6809	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Servant	26 years 18 years	Dunedin Portobello	2 2 years 12 months	In the House of David Wilson Duncan Street Dunedin	72/1735	William Macpherson, Father	January 12	Rev. John Gow
155	13 January 1872	Thomas Geary Janet Macpherson	Thomas Geary Janet MacPherson 💍 1872/8765	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	21 years 16 years	Portobello Portobello	21 years 12 months	In the House of William Macpherson Portobello	72 2404	William Macpherson, Father		Revd. Alexander Black
156	14 January 1872	George Henry Heniffe Elizabeth McDonald	George Henry Minifie Elizabeth McDonald 💍 1872/6980	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	29 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 2 years	In Knox Church	11/191		January 25	Revd. D. M. Stuart
157	15 January 1872	Allan Shearer Reed Ellen Brown	Allan Shearer McLeod Ellen Brown 💍 1872/5852	Bachelor Spinster	Soapboiler	26 years 21 years	Dunedin Roslyn	3 years 10 years	In the House of Daniel Brown Roslyn	1272/1444		January 17	Rev. William Alves
158	16 January 1872	William Mitchell King Elizabeth Sarah Cowley	William Mitchell King Elizabeth Sarah Cowley 💍 1872/6974	Bachelor Spinster	carpenter	35 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 3 years	In the House of Revd. Dm Stuart Dunedin	11/1789		January 17	Revd. D. M. Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).