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 749

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
171	7 July 1873	Robert Hay Ann Strachan	Robert Hay Ann Strachan 💍 1873/7210	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 18	Dunedin Dunedin	11 years 15 months	House of R. Hay	73/819	R. Hay, father	22 July 1873	Rev. D.W. Stuart D.D.
172	23 July 1873	Charles Jessep Bridget Athy	Charles Jessop Bridget Athy 💍 1873/8710	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	35 23	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 5 months	Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	73/1325		23 July 1873	The Deputy Registrar
173	8 July 1873	John Donaldson Marion McPherson	John Donaldson Marion McPherson 💍 1873/8713	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Servant	33 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 years 10 years	Office of the Registrar of Marriages	73/1336		24 July 1873	The Deputy Registrar
174	8 July 1873	David Sinnott Anastasia Connor	David Sinnott Anastasia O'Connor 💍 1873/7351	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	42 25	Dunedin Dunedin	2 months 3 years	St. Josephs Church	73/864		26 July 1873	Rev. P. Coleman
177	9 July 1873	John M. Geary Julia Hines	John McCarthy Julia Hayes 💍 1873/7354	Widower Spinster	Brewer	38 22	Dunedin Dunedin	11 years 1 year	St. Josephs Church	73/865		28 July 1873	Rev. P. Coleman
178	10 July 1873	James Gillies Mary Harriett Chalmers	James Gillies Mary Harriet Shalimar Lockley 💍 1873/11059	Bachelor Spinster	Planter	32 18	Dunedin Dunedin	10 days 6 months	St. Paul's Church	73/12136	Evelyn Chalmers, father	28 July 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edwards
179	11 July 1873	Henry Divers Mary Ann Abernethy	Henry Divers Mary Ann Abernethy 💍 1873/8665	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	24 18	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 4 years	Kensington	73/1310	Agnes Abernethy, mother	29 July 1873	Rev. D.W. Stuart D.D.
180	14 July 1873	James Patrick Catherine Smith	James Patrick Catherine Smith 💍 1873/7393	Widower Widow	Baker	39 31	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 10 years	The home of John Martin	73/698		30 July 1873	Rev. A. Blake
181	16 July 1873	John Pearman Mary Ann Martin	John Penman Mary Ann Martin 💍 1873/7216	Bachelor Spinster	Iron Smith	21 19	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 10 years	Emma Side	73/819	Martin Stafford, father	31 July 1873	Rev. D.W. Stuart D.D.
182	1 August 1873	George Heorder Ellen Hendry	George Horder Ellen Huddy 💍 1873/7231	Widower Widow	Messenger	42 47	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 10 years	The home of H.M. Fleet	73/824		4 August 1873	Rev. D.W. Stuart D.D.
183	6 August 1873	Michael Foy Ellen Walpole	Michael Fox Ellen Walpole 💍 1873/7357	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker	24 23	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 2 years	St. Josephs Church	73/866		6 August 1873	Rev. N. Coleman

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).