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 733

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
7	7 January 1873	Alexander Livingston Wilson Mary Sellers	Alexander Livingston Wilson Mary Sellars 💍 1873/6181 Alexander Livingston Wilson Mary Sellars 💍 1873/11101	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Servant	26 years 23 years	Kaikorai Green Island	3 years 5 years	In the home of Archibald Sellers, Green Island	73/2/153		7 January 1873	Rev. Michael Watt
14	10 January 1873	George Boot Ellen Rutherford	George Boot Ellen Rutherford 💍 1873/6184	Bachelor Widow	Fellmonger	39 years 20 years	Green Island Green Island	2 years 9 years	In the home of Mr George Boot, Green Island	73/2/164		14 January 1873	Rev. M Watt
20	24 January 1873	Lewis Hay Irvine Marshall Mary Brown	Lewis Hay Irving Marshall Mary Brown 💍 1873/6088	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	25 years 24 years	Kaikorai Valley Roslyn	1 year 10 years	In the home of Mr Daniel Brown, Roslyn	73/432		24 January 1873	Rev. A. Blake
35	10 February 1873	Kenneth Williamson Isabella Anderson Bayne	Kenneth Williamson Isabella A Bayne 💍 1873/8686	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	21 years 20 years	Peninsula Peninsula	3 days 16 years	In the home of Peter Bayne, Peninsula	73/1317	Peter Bayne, father of bride	10 February 1873	Rev. A. Greig
42	17 February 1873	Thomas William Hislop Maria Annie Simpson	Thomas Wm Hislop Maria Annie Simpson 💍 1873/6211	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	22 years 24 years	Oamaru Dunedin	16 months 3 years	In the home of W.D. Stewart, Dunedin	73/2/173		17 February 1873	Rev. D. M. Stuart D.D.
49	25 February 1873	George Broad Georgina Hannah Goodall	George Broad Georgina Hannah Goodall 💍 1873/5183	Bachelor Widow	Labourer	29 years 27 years	Caversham Caversham	2 years 2 years	St Pauls Church, Dunedin	73/122		25 February 1873	Rev. E. G. Edwards
62	18 March 1873	John Geary Annie Hughes	John Geary Annie Hughes 💍 1873/6199	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Servant	24 years 26 years	Portobello Portobello	24 years 5 months	St Josephs Church, Dunedin	73/1464		18 March 1873	Rev. W. Coleman
69	26 March 1873	John McCarthney Jessie Agnes Seaton	John McCartney Jessie Agnes Seaton 💍 1873/7432	Bachelor Spinster	Settler	30 years 25 years	Portobello Portobello	7 years 25 years	In the home of James Seaton, Portobello	73/1891		26 March 1873	Rev. A. Greig

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

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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).