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 735

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 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
49	5 April 1873	James Bayne Jane Sampson Sim	James Bayne Jane Samson Sim 💍 1873/7435	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 years 28 years	Peninsula Peninsula	16 years 14 years	In the house of James Sim, Peninsula	73/892		5 April 1873	Rev. Alexr Greig
50	5 April 1873	Walter Aristide Fastier Ann Ballantyne	Walter Aristide Fastier Ann Ballantyne 💍 1873/7303	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	26 years 19 years	Green Island Green Island	2 years 19 years	In the house of John Ballantyne, Green Island	73/842	John Ballantyne, Father	8 April 1873	Rev. J. L. Stanley
85	10 April 1873	Benjamin Smith Elizabeth Metcalfe	"Conflicting inform no return"	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Servant	31 years 24 years	Blueskin Blueskin	1 year 2 years	In St Barnabas Church Blueskin		Conflicting inform no return	10 April 1873	Rev. J. L. Stanley
114	16 May 1873	Thomas Bennett Mary Hickey	Thomas Bennett Mary Hickey 💍 1873/7309	Bachelor Spinster	Bricklayer Domestic Servant	33 years 28 years	Laversham Dunedin	3 weeks 4 years	Inst St Josephs Church, Dunedin	73/850		16 May 1873	Rev. R. H. Stanford
119	24 May 1873	James Henry Cummings Ellen Geraldine Weeks	James Henry Cummings Ellen Geraldine Wicks 💍 1873/7108	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner	24 years 21 years	Green Island Green Island	2 years 2 years	In All Saints Church, Dunedin	73/783		24 May 1873	Rev. M. Watt
123	27 May 1873	Peter McLachlan Euphemia Bryce	Peter McLachlan Euphemia Bryce 💍 1873/7306	Widower Widow	Miner	51 years 51 years	Green Island Tomahawk	12 years 12 years	In the house of I Campbell, Green Island	73/849		27 May 1873	Rev. H. Mcnaughton
139	25 June 1873	James Hunter Duckworth Isabel Hockhart Grainger	James Duckworth Isobel Grainger 💍 1873/7402	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	29 years 19 years	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	19 years 19 years	In the house of H Grainger, Andersons Bay	73/881	H Grainger, Father	31 May 1873
139	25 June 1873	Karl Hermann Strangoth Juliane Gedanetz	Karl Hermann Frangott Pistor Juliana Gedanetz 💍 1873/7330	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	22 years 18 years	Pine Hill Pine Hill	4 months 3 weeks	Inst St Josephs Church, Dunedin	73/857	Maria Gedanetz, Mother	25 June 1873	Rev. Patrick Moran

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).