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 756

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1874

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
234	23 October 1873	William Comrie Elizabeth Chamberlain Long	William Comrie Elizabeth Chamberlain Long 💍 1873/8677	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Dunedin Dunedin	16 months 2 years	Private Residence of Mr William Comrie	73/13/14	Ann Long, mother of Elizabeth Chamberlain Long	23 October 1873	Rev. John Gow
236	24 October 1873	John Mander Mena Rachel Mary Thompson	John Maunder Nero Rachel Mary Thompson 💍 1873/7300	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	23 26	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 9 years	In home of Rev. Dr. Roseby, Moray Place	73/847		24 October 1873	Rev. D. Roseby
237	24 October 1873	James Durward Mary Barr	James Durwood Mary Bain 💍 1873/8617 James Churstain Mary Farr 💍 1873/5135 James Gurney Mary Bell 💍 1873/10519	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 3 weeks	In house of Charles Brunton, St. David Street	73/1292		24 October 1873	Rev. James Copland
238	25 October 1873	Martin O'Brien Margaret Purcell	Martin Brennan Margaret Purcell 💍 1873/7375	Bachelor Spinster	Cab proprietor Servant	25 25	Dunedin Dunedin	1 year 1 year	In St Joseph's Church	73/872		25 October 1873	Rev. D. Moran
239	27 October 1873	Neil Reid Anne Laverty	Neil Reid Anne Laverty 💍 1873/8620	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Servant	30 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 1 year	Allen's City Buffet, Princes Street	73/1293		27 October 1873	Rev. Dm. Stuart
241	28 October 1873	Francis Martin Clark Harriet Burrows	Francis Martin Clark Harriet Burrowes 💍 1873/10948	Bachelor Widow	Stock driver	43 46	Dunedin Dunedin	5 weeks 5 weeks	All Saints Church	2097		28 October 1873	Rev. Rh. Stamford
242	29 October 1873	Stephen Reedwell Jane Johnson	Stephen Reedwell Jane Chinnick 💍 1873/10504	Bachelor Spinster	Servant	35 33	Dunedin Dunedin	14 weeks 14 days	St. Paul's Church	73/1938		29 October 1873	Rev. E.G. Edmunds
243	31 October 1873	David Infe Annie Slegg	David Fyfe Annie Clegg 💍 1873/10483	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	33 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St Paul's Church	73/1931	Joseph Slegg, father of Annie Slegg	31 October 1873	Rev. E.G. Edmunds

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).