Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 760

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1873

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
273	11 December 1873	James Farlande Elizabeth Peterkin	James Farland Elizabeth Peterkin 💍 1873/8629	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman Laundress	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 5 years	In the house of Anathan Hogsson, Cumberland Street, Dunedin	73/1296		15 December 1873	Rev. James Coplande
274	12 December 1873	Patrick Jackson Green Jane Rogers	Patrick Jackson Greer Jane Rogers 💍 1873/8764	Bachelor Widow	Brewer	36 30	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church	73/1343		12 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
277	15 December 1873	William Nelson Oliver Elizabeth Fowler	William Wilson Oliver Elizabeth Fowler 💍 1873/8773	Bachelor Spinster	Machinist	23 20	Dunedin Dunedin	9 years 25 years	In the house of Dr. B. Stuart, George Street, Dunedin	73/1346	Hannah Hall, Mother of Elizabeth Fowler	15 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
278	15 December 1873	John Pattison Susan Foster	John Pattison Susan Foster 💍 1873/8767	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	47 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 weeks 1 year	In the house of Mr Eggers, Great King Street, Dunedin	73/1344		15 December 1873	Rev. Dr. Stuart
279	17 December 1873	William Hayes Alice Williams	William Hayes Alice Williams 💍 1873/8683	Bachelor Spinster	Fruiterer	21 21	Dunedin Dunedin	7 months 10 months	St. Paul's Church	73/1318		17 December 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edwards
280	17 December 1873	James Lambert Margaret Bellamy	James Lambert Margaret Richie Spalding 💍 1873/8770	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	36 27	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Rev. D. Stuart's house, George Street, Dunedin	73/1345		17 December 1873	Rev. Dr. Stuart
281	19 December 1873	Arthur William Moore Rosanna Mullington	Arthur William Moore Rosanna Millington 💍 1873/8779	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	23 21	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 2 years	Knox Church	73/1348		19 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
282	19 December 1873	William Mason Catherine Fenn	William Mason Catherine Fenn 💍 1873/10498	Widower Widow	Architect	63 33	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 5 years	St. Paul's Church	73/1936		19 December 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edmonds
283	20 December 1873	Hugh Crospan Margaret Colucas	Hugh Crossan Margaret Clucas 💍 1873/10501	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	26 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St. Paul's Church	73/1939		20 December 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edmonds

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).