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 759

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 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
263	25 November 1873	Charles Dunnet Mary Cranston	Charles Dunnett Mary Clouston 💍 1873/8755	Bachelor Spinster	Shipwright	22 22	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 10 months	In the home of Alexander Henderson	73/1340		25 November 1873	Rev. Dr. Stuart
264	27 November 1873	Alexander Henderson Elizabeth Smith	Alexander Henderson Elizabeth Smith 💍 1873/8758	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	25 23	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church	73/1341		27 November 1873	Rev. Dr. Stuart
265	2 December 1873	Patrick McEneany Catherine McEnerny	Patrick McEnerny Catherine McEnerny 💍 1873/10474	Bachelor Widow	Gardener	23 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St. Joseph's Church Dunedin	73/1928		2 December 1873	Right Rev. P. Moran D.D.
266	2 December 1873	George Carter Annie Nelson	George Carter Annie Nelson 💍 1873/8761	Bachelor Spinster	Seaman	23 25	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 months	Knox Church	73/1342		2 December 1873	Rev. S. Stuart
267	30 December 1873	William Innes Steward Leannah Whiteford	William Jukes Steward Hannah Whitefoord 💍 1873/10495	Bachelor Spinster	Editor	32 33	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	St. Paul's Church	73/1935		30 December 1873	Ven. Archdeacon Edwards
268	4 December 1873	Albert Faifax Durdney Margaret Jones	Albert Fairfax Dewdney Margaret Jones 💍 1873/10951	Bachelor Widow	Warehouseman	33 34	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 2 years	All Saints' Church Dunedin	73/2098		4 December 1873	Rev. R. L. Stanford
269	5 December 1873	Edward O'Neill Mary Grealish	Bernard O'Neil Mary Greylish 💍 1873/10477	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	35 23	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months	St. Joseph's Church	73/1929		5 December 1873	Right Rev. P. Moran
270	6 December 1873	David Stalker Jane Miller	David Stalker Jane Miller 💍 1873/10174	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	47 21	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 10 years	In the office of the Registrar	73/1826		6 December 1873	William Parker Sheet
271	8 December 1873	Charles Shand Mary McPherson	"no marriage"	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman	25 23	Dunedin Leith Street, Dunedin	2 months 3 days	Mr Fairlie's Home, Russell Street Dunedin		no marriage	8 December 1873	Rev. D. M. Stuart
272	9 December 1873	Alexander Stevenson Isabella Grant Burns	Alexander Stevenson Isabella Grant Burns 💍 1873/8680	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	30 22	Dunedin London Street, Dunedin	2 years 2 years	In the home of Mrs. Burns	73/1315		9 December 1873	Rev. John Gow

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).