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 752

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
212	13 September 1873	James Lindsay Lillie Smith	James Lindsay Lillias Sutherland 💍 1873/7276	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	26 21	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the house of D. Ferguson, Albert Place	73/839		13 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
213	16 September 1873	Walter France Ellen Temple	Walter Blane Ellen Lynch 💍 1873/7273	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer Cook	27 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 4 years	the house of Walter Rane, Castle Street	73/838		16 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
214	18 September 1873	John Smith Annie Atkins	John Smith Annie Atkins 💍 1873/7279	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	33 25	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 8 years	Knox Church	73/840		18 September 1873	Rev. DM. Stuart D.D.
216	18 September 1873	George Bell Elizabeth Margaret Galloway	George Bell Shepherd Elizabeth Margaret Galloway 💍 1873/7285	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	28 21	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 12 years	In the home of William Galloway	73/842		18 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
217	19 September 1873	James Goodwin Mary Ann Andrews	James Godwin Mary Ann Andrews 💍 1873/4658	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	26 17	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	St. Paul's Church	73/2/37	Mary Ann Andrews, mother	19 September 1873	Rev. E.G. Edwards
218	24 September 1873	William Stevenson Emily Wilson	Wm Waterhouse Dawson Emily Wilson 💍 1873/7282	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	31 18	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 4 days	In the home of H. Davidson, Albany Street	73/841	Ann Cooper, mother	24 September 1873	Rev. D.W. Stuart D.D.
219	25 September 1873	James Bain Cherry Sizemore	James Bain Charity Sizemore 💍 1873/8740	Bachelor Spinster	[UNCLEAR]	25 21	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 4 months	St. Paul's Church Dunedin	73/1335		25 September 1873	Rev. E.G. Edmunds
220	29 September 1873	Samuel John Loring Henrietta Prudence Sorreby	Samuel John Loring Henrietta Prudence Townley 💍 1873/7288	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	30 20	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 6 weeks	In the house of I. Jackson, George Street	73/843	Ann Sarah Rowley, mother	29 September 1873	Rev. DM. Stuart
221	29 September 1873	William McKenzie Jane Morris	William MacKenzie Jane Morris 💍 1873/8731	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	39 37	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 10 years	Knox Church	73/1332		29 September 1873	Rev. DM. Stuart D.D.

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).