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 726

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 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
28	3 February 1873	Charles Frearricks Minnie Henriette Freasriche Oldenburg	Charles William Frederick Hober Minna Hinrietta Fredericka Oldenburg 💍 1873/6103	Bachelor Spinster	Distiller	37 22	Dunedin Dunedin	4 months 3 weeks	In the home of P. Stengel, Scotland Street, Dunedin	73/437		February 1873	J.W.C. Kerime
29	5 February 1873	William Guffie Julia Cappel	Wm Guffie Julia Keppel 💍 1873/6193	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 4 days	Knox Church, Dunedin	M73/467		February 1873	Rev. J. O'Donovan
30	6 February 1873	William Faulkner Emma Wilson	William Faulkner Margaret Wilson 💍 1873/5417	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 19	Dunedin Dunedin	18 months 5 years	In the home of Henry Wilson, Arthur Street, Dunedin	M73/450	Henry Wilson, father	February 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
31	6 February 1873	Amos Wood Ann Smith	Amos Wood Ann Smith 💍 1873/6091	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer	24 21	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 10 years	In the house of Ann Smith, Cargile Street, Dunedin	73/433		February 1873	Rev. J. Brownby
32	6 February 1873	Charles Lymnore Clara Lovell	Charles Fynmore Clara Lovell 💍 1873/5174	Bachelor Spinster	Draughtsman	23 15	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 8 years	In Knox Church, Dunedin	73/119		February 1873	Lieutenant Rev. G.E. Edwards
33	7 February 1873	Thomas Hastie Maria Allan	Thomas Hastie Maria Allan 💍 1873/6139	Bachelor Spinster	Carter	27 18	Dunedin Dunedin	14 years 11 years	Knox Church, Dunedin	M73/449	Ann x Allan, mother	February 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
34	10 February 1873	William Kennedy Margaret Stewart	Wm Kennedy Margaret Stewart 💍 1873/6196 William Barsdell Janet Stewart 💍 1873/5653	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Servant	29 25	Dunedin Dunedin	8 days 4 days	St Joseph's Church, Dunedin	M73/468		February 1873	Rev. J. Crowley
36	11 February 1873	James Frazer Frances Mayo	James Fraser Frances Mayo 💍 1873/5204	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 21	East Taieri Dunedin	3 days 10 days	Otahia, in the East Taieri District	73/128		February 1873	Rev. J.M. Allan

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).