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 627

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
216	23 December 1872	Allan Spansley Roseanna O'Kane	Allan Sprusley Rose Anna O'Kane 💍 1872/8942	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Servant	28 26	North East Valley North East Valley	3 years 6 months	St Paul's Church Dunedin	72/246		23 December 1872	Rev. E.G. Edwards
217	24 December 1872	Daniel O'Kane Sarah Ann Diff	Danl O'Kane Sarah Anne Jeffs 💍 1872/6743	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	28 24	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 3 years	St Joseph's Church Dunedin	72/172		24 December 1872	Rev. Wm Coleman
218	26 December 1872	Thomas Connor Kate Heffernan	Thomas Connor Kate Heffernan 💍 1872/6740	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	40 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 12 months	At Murphys Shamrock Hotel Dunedin	72/171		26 December 1872	Rev. Patrick Moran
219	26 December 1872	Christian Ferdinand Frederickson Cathrine Rasmusson	Christian Ferdinand Frederickson Cathrine Rasmusen 💍 1872/7259	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	27 28	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	72/185		26 December 1872	William Parker Street, Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
220	26 December 1872	Alexander McKrazie Margaret Cameron Stratton	Alexander McKenzie Margaret Cameron Stratton 💍 1872/7190	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	7 weeks 9 years	In the house of James Prelvar York Place Dunedin	72/1862	Margaret Prelvar, Mother	26 December 1872	Rev. Dm Stuart
221	28 December 1872	Matthew Tweedie Elizabeth Henderson	Matthew Tweedie Elizabeth Henderson 💍 1872/7196	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Servant	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 years	In the house of John Gollar Albany St. Dunedin	72/1864		28 December 1872	Rev. Dm Stuart
222	28 December 1872	William Dochart Mary Bell	William Dochart Mary Bell 💍 1872/7199	Bachelor Widow	Quarryman	37 34	Dunedin Dunedin	7 days 3 years	In the house of Rev. Dm Stuart Dunedin	72/1865		28 December 1872	Rev. Dm Stuart
223	28 December 1872	David Con Hutton Helen Bryant Douglas	David Con Hutton Helen Brydon Douglas 💍 1872/7193	Widower Spinster	Drawing Master	29 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 14 years	In the house of Mrs Douglas Pelichet Bay	72/1863		28 December 1872	Rev. 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).