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 613

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
116	July 1872	Joseph Braithwaite Mary Anne Bellett	Joseph Braithwaite Mary Ann Bellet 💍 1872/6719	Bachelor Spinster	Bookseller	24 years 16 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 8 years	In the House of Revd Patrick Moran, Rattray Street Dunedin	72/2	James Bellett, father	July 1872	Revd Patrick Moran
117	July 1872	Peter Golden Catherine Kelly	Peter Golden Catherine Kelly 💍 1872/7091	Bachelor Widow	Brickmaker	30 years 36 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 10 years	In the House of John Brooks, Gt King Street, Dunedin	72/3		July 1872	Revd Dm Stuart
118	July 3	Louis Busson Kathleen Thomson	Louis Buisson Kathleen Thomson 💍 1872/7088	Widower Widow	Shopman	52 years 37 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 11 years	Knox Church Dunedin	72/828		July 1872	Revd Dm Stuart
119	July 10	James Frederick Fake Agnes Barton Mackie Iago	James Frederick Peake Agnes Barton Mackie Jago 💍 1872/6884	Bachelor Spinster	Importer	28 years 18 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 10 years	In the House of J.W. Iago, Leith Street, Dunedin	72/1759	John Hesley Iago, father	July 1872	Revd. Thomas Rossby
120	July 16	William Howard Mary Ellen Naylor	William Howard Mary Ellen Naylor 💍 1872/6788	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	39 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 2 years	St Pauls Church Dunedin	72/1728		July 1872	Revd. G.G. Edwards
121	July 16	George Wright Annie Thomson	George Wright Ann Johnston Thomson 💍 1872/6959	Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	22 years 21 years	Dunedin Premrose Hill	10 years 9 years	In the House of David Thomson, Premrose Hill	72/1784		July 1872	Revd. John Williams
122	July 14	Jonas Hinchcliff Alison Howden Bowers	Jonas Hinchcliff Alison Howden Bowers 💍 1872/7094	Bachelor Spinster	Woolsorter	37 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 mnths 2 years	In the House of Andrew Anderson, York Place, Dunedin	72/1830		July 1872	Revd Dm Stuart
123	July 14	Andrew Hepburn Janet Nimmo Healey	Andrew Hepburn Janet Nimmo Healey 💍 1872/6836	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 years 20 years	Wakari Dunedin	20 years 2 years	In the House of John Healey, High Street, Dunedin	72/1743	John Healey, father	July 1872	Revd John Gow
124	July 18	Thomas Henderson Mary Price	Thomas Henderson Mary Price 💍 1872/7097	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	29 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 6 months	In the House of Daniel Ferguson, Octagon, Dunedin	72/1831		July 1872	Revd Dm 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 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).