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 624

District of Dunedin Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
192	15 November 1872	John Lockhart Nicol Sarah Tinnock	John Lockhart Nicol Sarah Tinnoch 💍 1872/8966	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 22	North East Harbor Highcliffe	5 years 8 years	In the House of Mr Sarah Tinnock Highcliffe, Peninsula	72/2276		15 November 1872	Rev. J.N. McHaught
193	18 November 1872	Herman Levi Marie Beaver	Herman Arndt Marie Beanier 💍 1872/6860	Bachelor Spinster	Merchant	37 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 5 years	In the Jewish Synagogue Dunedin	72/1751		18 November 1872	Rev. Jacob Levy
194	21 November 1872	Nicholas Paterson Mary Caroline James	Nicholas Paterson Mary Caroline James 💍 1872/7172	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	27 17	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 9 years	In Knox Church Dunedin	72/1856	Lavinia Sonderold, Mother	21 November 1872	Rev. D.M. Stuart
195	21 November 1872	Thomas Fairley Catherine Wallace	Thomas Fairley Catherine Wallace 💍 1872/5687	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	24 21	Mornington Halfway Bush	12 years 9 years	In the House of George Wallace Halfway Bush	72/1358		21 November 1872	Rev. Alexander
196	22 November 1872	Michael Cassall Bridget Casserly	Michael Casserly Bridget Casserly 💍 1872/6734	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	35 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St Joseph's Church Dunedin	72/1909		22 November 1872	Rev. William Colem
197	22 November 1872	Charles Peter Farquharson Mary Ann Colville Macpherson	Charles Peter Farquharson McPherson Mary Ann Colville 💍 1872/7169	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Servant	25 18	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 8 days	In the House of John Jopp Frederick Street Dunedin	72/1855	Mary A. Marshall, Mother	22 November 1872	Rev. D.M. Stuart
198	25 November 1872	John Jacob Lewis Eliza Millward	John Jacob Lewis Eliza Millward 💍 1872/7175	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	32 27	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 6 years	In Knox Church Dunedin	72/1859		25 November 1872	Rev. D.M. Stuart
199	27 November 1872	Henry Steven Anna Sproule	Henry Steven Anna Sproule 💍 1872/6845	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner	29 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 7 years	In the House of Miss M. A. Sproule Walker Street Dunedin	72/1946		27 November 1872	Rev. John Gow

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).