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 614

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
125	18 July 1872	Richard Roberts Mary Jane Woods	Richard Roberts Mary Jane Woods 💍 1872/7232	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet Maker	24years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 2 months	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	72/1876	19 July 1872	William Parker Short, Registrar of Marriages
126	20 July 1872	Robert Hewitson Eiizabeth Simpson	Robert Hewitson Elizabeth Ann Simpson 💍 1872/6752	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	29 years 26 years	Dunedin North East Valley	3 days 3 months	In the House of Walter Simpson	72/1877	20 July 1872	Rev James Copland
127	23 July 1872	John Cousins Mary Wilson	John Cousins Mary Wilson 💍 1872/7235 John Douglas Mary Ann Wilson 💍 1872/5175	Widower Widow	Miner	36 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	72/1879	23 July 1872	William Parker Short, Registrar of Marriages,
128	24 July 1872	Henry Hawker Margaret Aitkenhead	Henry Hawker Margaret Aitkenhead 💍 1872/7238	Bachelor Widow	Dairyman	42 years 41 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 years 10 years	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages	72/1878	24 July 1872	William Parker Short, Registrar of Marriages
129	27 July 1872	Matthew Davison Clydesdale Isabella Aitken	Matthew Darison Clydesdale Isabella Aitken 💍 1872/7103	Widower Widow	Carter	33 years 35 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 weeks 4 years	In the House of Mrs Clydesdale	72/1883	27 July 1872	Rev. Wm Stuart
130	29 July 1872	John Barty Margaret Turnbull	John Barty Margaret Turnbull 💍 1872/7100	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	31 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Ayrshire Hotel of King Street	72/1882	29 July 1872	Rev. D. M. Stuart
131	31 July 1872	Michael Butler Mary Fitzpatrick	Michael Butler Mary Fitzpatrick 💍 1872/6722	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	30 years 32 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 years 7 years	In St Josephs Church	72/1703	31 July 1872	Rev. Patrick Moran
132	2 August 1872	Charles Goodall Margaret Cane	Charles Goodall Margaret Cane 💍 1872/6791	Widower Spinster	Dairyman Servant	33 years 22 years	North East Valley North East Valley	7 weeks 7 weeks	In St Pauls Church	72/1729	2 August 1872	Rev. E. G. Edwards

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).