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 761

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
284	20 December 1873	Edward Lyons Ellen Waterhouse	Edward Lyons Ellen Waterhouse 💍 1873/8776	Bachelor Widow	Hotelkeeper	33 29	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 12 years	In the home of Mr. J. F. Peters, Cumberland Street Dunedin	73/1347		20 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
286	24 December 1873	William Hayes Alice Williams	William Hayes Alice Williams 💍 1873/8683	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	21 21	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 3 months	St Andrew's Church Dunedin	73/1316		24 December 1873	Rev. John Gow
287	27 December 1873	James Johnston Christina Anderson	James Johnston Christina Anderson 💍 1873/8632	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 26	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 9 years	In the house of Mr W. I. Harrison, North East Valley	73/1294		27 December 1873	Rev. D. Copland
288	29 December 1873	William Harens Mary Cowling	William Harcus Mary Cowling 💍 1873/10510	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	46 17	Dunedin Dunedin	5 weeks 1 week	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	73/1940	William Cowling, father of Mary Cowling	29 December 1873	Wm. Parker Street
289	29 December 1873	Robert Studholme Elizabeth Northfield	Robert Studholme Elizabeth Northfield 💍 1873/8785	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	30 19	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 2½ years	In the home of Joseph Northfield, Melville Lane Dunedin	73/1350	Joseph Northfield, father of Elizabeth Northfield	29 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
291	30 December 1873	Charles Shand Isabella Fruish	Charles Shand Isabella Fruish 💍 1874/7093	Bachelor Spinster	Shopman Servant	24 20	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 2 years	In the home of Mr William Farlie, Adam Street Dunedin	74/411	No Person resident in New Zealand entitled by law to give consent	30 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
292	30 December 1873	Peter Pickwide Janet Donaldson Mitchell	Peter Pickard Janet Donaldson Mitchell 💍 1874/7264	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	27 20	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 15 years	In the house of John Mitchell, Leith Street, Dunedin	74/472	John Mitchell Father	30 December 1873	Rev. D. Coplande
293	30 December 1873	Charles Lorenz Jessie Clark	Charles Lorenz Jessie Clark 💍 1874/7084	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Servant	30 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	Knox Church Dunedin	74/408		30 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart
294	30 December 1873	Charles Rudolph De Berg Henrietta Catherine Aveson	Charles Rudolph Deberg Henrietta Catharin Smith 💍 1874/7087	Bachelor Widow	Tinsmith	26 28	Dunedin Dunedin	5 year 1 year	Knox Church Dunedin	74/409	In Rev Stuart's return "Henrietta Catherine Smith - Spinster"	30 December 1873	Rev. D. Stuart

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).