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 758

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
254	13 November 1873	Richard Francis Marsh Clara Jeannie Inglis	Richard Francis Marsh Clara Eugenie Younghusband 💍 1873/8752	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Dressmaker	22 24	Dunmedin Dunmedin	2 years 2 weeks	St Paul's Church	73/1339	13 November 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edwards
255	14 November 1873	Edward Reede Eliza Notlew	Edward Randle Eliza Guthrie 💍 1874/6082	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Dressmaker	51 37	Dunedin Kensington	12 years 7 years	Registrar's Office	73/1322	14 November 1873	William Parker Sheit, Registr. of arran
256	14 November 1873	Richard Francis Marsh Clare Eugenie Inglis	Richard Francis Marsh Clara Eugenie Younghusband 💍 1873/8752	Bachelor Spinster	Boilermaker Governess	22 24	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 6 weeks	In the home of the Rev. Dr. Stuart	73/1339	14 November 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
257	15 November 1873	Thomas Pimms Mnosew Mary Frances Murphy	Thomas Tims Musson Mary Murphy 💍 1873/11035	Bachelor Spinster	Photographer	29 23	Dunedin Halfway Bush	9 Days	In the home of M. M. Murphy, Halfway Bush	73/2127	15 November 1873	Rev. William Coleman
258	17 November 1873	Henry Homes Margaret Gibson	Henry Howes Margaret Gibson 💍 1873/8737	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Servant	29 22	Dunedin Kaitorai	1 year 1 year	In the home of John Findley	73/1334	17 November 1873	Rev. Dr. Stuart
260	24 November 1873	John Black Christina Sangster	John Clark Christina Sarguston 💍 1873/8608	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	48 28	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 9 months	In home of Stewart, Manor Place, Dunedin	73/1289	24 November 1873	M. J. Ke Bates
261	24 November 1873	George Ivie Butcher Matilda Elizabeth Campbell Davis	George Wade Butcher Matilda Elizabeth Campbell Davis 💍 1873/10492	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	28 23	Dunedin Dunedin	8 months 23 years	St. Paul's Church	73/1934	24 November 1873	Rev. E. G. Edwards
262	25 November 1873	William Brop Isabella Keay	William Cross Isabella Keay 💍 1873/8698	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	34 34	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 5 years	In home of James Gibb, Moray Place, Dunedin	73/1321	25 November 1873	Rev. Thomas Roseby

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

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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).