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 750

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
184	7 August 1873	Walter Parbet Jane McFillan	Walter Tarbet Jane Gilgillan 💍 1873/7222	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	31 23	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 4 years	In the home of John Kraus	73/821		12 August 1873	Rev. D. Mc. Stuart
185	8 August 1873	Henry Mague McWilliam Margaret Goode	Henry Mayne McWilliam Margaret Good 💍 1873/7228	Bachelor Spinster	Painter	26 18	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 12 years	Maitland St, Dunedin	73/823	Henry Goode	9 August 1873	Rev. D. Mc. Stuart
186	8 August 1873	John Hope Elizabeth Jane Hensley	John Hope Elizabeth Jane Hensley 💍 1873/7234	Bachelor Spinster	Traveller	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 8 years	In the home of John Hope	73/825		9 August 1873	Rev. D. Mc. Stuart
187	9 August 1873	Alexander Owen Annie Docherty	Alexander Owen Annie Doherty 💍 1873/8668	Widower Spinster	Carrier Housekeeper	37 25	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 8 years	In the home of Jane Jackson	73/13/1		9 August 1873	Rev. John Jow.
189	11 August 1873	Thomas Kendall Grace Plank	Thomas Rendall Stuart Grace Plank 💍 1873/7237	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Hotelkeeper	40 35	Dunedin Dunedin	5 days 5 days	Knox Church	73/826		11 August 1873	Rev. Wm. Stuart
191	14 August 1873	George Peowmen Elsie Underwood	George Perriman Elsie Underwood 💍 1873/8719	Bachelor Spinster	Scenepainter Milliner	39 22	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 3 days	In office of Reg. of Mar.	73/328		14 August 1873	The Registrar of marr
192	14 August 1873	Alexander Graham Jane Forster	Alexander Graham Jane Forster 💍 1873/8716	Bachelor Spinster	Station overseer	30 19	Dunedin Dunedin	6 weeks 6 weeks	In office of Reg. of char.	73/327	no person to give consent	14 August 1873	The Registrar of charma
193	15 August 1873	David Power Mary Hogan	David Power Mary Hogan 💍 1873/7360	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 28	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 6 years	St Joseph's Church	73/869		15 August 1873	Rev. H. Coleman
194	20 August 1873	Thomas Farr Christine Gow	Thomas Barr Christina Gow 💍 1873/7240	Bachelor Spinster	Drayman	29 29	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	Hanover St, Dunedin	73/829		20 August 1873	Rev. Wm. Smart D.D
195	20 August 1873	Francis Holloway Mary Emily Mills	Francis Holloway Mary Emily Mills 💍 1873/8722	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	26 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 Months 3 months	In the office of the Reg. of mar.	73/329		20 August 1873	The Registrar of marriages
196	23 August 1873	James Gollice Sarah Mathers	James Collie Sarah Matthews 💍 1873/7387	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	38 24	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 12 months	In the house of James Gollice, Castle Street, Dunedin	73/876		23 August 1873	Rev. James Copeland

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).