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 751

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	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
197	7 August 1873	John Gibson Mary Jane Frazadully	John Gibson Mary Jane Fazakerley 💍 1873/10945	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	22 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years in all parts 16 years	St Josephs Church	73/2096	25 August 1873	Rev. R.F. Stanford
199	8 August 1873	George Thomson Annie McKean	George Thomson Annie McKean 💍 1873/7246	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 3 years	In Knox Church	73/829	29 August 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
200	10 August 1873	William Wishart Catherine Gorman	William Wishart Catherine Power O'Gorman 💍 1873/7363	Widower Widow	Tailor	47 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	20 months 3 years	St Josephs Church	73/868	1 September 1873	Rev. H. Coleman
201	9 August 1873	Alexander Fraser Annie Smith	Alexander Fraser Annie Smith 💍 1873/7252	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 years 20 years	North Line of Railway Dunedin	12 years 9 years	In the home of J. Smith Walker	73/831	1 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
202	11 August 1873	Charles Frenett Emily Webster	Charles Skerratt Emily Webster 💍 1873/7249	Widower Spinster	Dealer	30 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 3 years	In Knox Church	73/830	3 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
205	14 August 1873	James Cooper Annie Gilbert	James Cooper Annie Gilbert 💍 1873/7258	Bachelor Spinster	Asphalter	23 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 months 1 week	In the home of James Craig, York Place	73/833	6 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
206	14 August 1873	John Gordon Ann Munro	John Gordon Ann Munro 💍 1873/7255	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	27 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Knox Church	73/832	8 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
207	8 September 1873	James Cahill Louisa Dawes	James Cahill Louisa Daws 💍 1873/7369	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	29 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 12 months	In the home of Rev. P. Moran Duendin	73/870	8 September 1873	Rev. W. Coleman
208	10 September 1873	Alfred Logan Emma Lewis	Alfred Logan Emma Lewis 💍 1873/7261	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Cook	21 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In Knox Church Dunedin	73/834	10 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
208	10 September 1873	Alfred Logan Emma Lewis	Alfred Logan Emma Lewis 💍 1873/7261	Bachelor Spinster	Waiter Cook	21 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In Knox Church Dunedin	73/834	10 September 1873	Rev. D.M. Stuart D.D.
209	12 September1873	John Coleman Elizabeth Burgess	John Coleman Elizabeth Burgess 💍 1873/7270	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	45 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 week 1 week	In KnoxChurch Dunedin	73/837	11 September 1873	Rev D.M. Stuart D.D.
211	12 September 1873	Patrick Fitzpatrick Annie Houlahan	Patrick Fitzpatrick Anne Houlihan 💍 1873/7366	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	28 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 6 years	In St Joseph's Church Dunedin	73/869	12 September 1873	Rev W. 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).