Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 720

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1874

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

28 January 1874

Robert Allen
Harriett Rose

Robert Allen
Harriett Rose
💍 1874/7168

Bachelor
Spinster

Seller

24 years
21 years

Portobello
Portobello

4 years
6 years

In Knox Church, Dunedin

74/437

19 January 1874

Rev Dr Stuart

No	28
Date of Notice	28 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Allen	Harriett Rose
	💍 1874/7168
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seller
Age	24 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Portobello	Portobello
Length of Residence	4 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	74/437
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev Dr Stuart

20 January 1874

William Sutherland
Jessie Patrick

William Sutherland
Jessie Patrick
💍 1874/7267

Widower
Spinster

Butcher

45 years
37 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of Mr Robert Bain, St David Street, Dunedin

74/473

20 January 1874

Rev J. Copeland

No	29
Date of Notice	20 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Sutherland	Jessie Patrick
	💍 1874/7267
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Butcher
Age	45 years	37 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr Robert Bain, St David Street, Dunedin
Folio	74/473
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev J. Copeland

30 January 1874

Mathew Black
Ann Auld

Mathew Black
Ann Auld
💍 1874/12769

Bachelor
Spinster

Seller

40 years
32 years

Andersons Bay
Caversham

4 years
2 years

In the house of Mathew Black, Andersons Bay

74/2360

20 January 1874

Rev J. H. McNaughton

No	30
Date of Notice	30 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Mathew Black	Ann Auld
	💍 1874/12769
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Seller
Age	40 years	32 years
Dwelling Place	Andersons Bay	Caversham
Length of Residence	4 years	2 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mathew Black, Andersons Bay
Folio	74/2360
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev J. H. McNaughton

31 January 1874

John Allen
Jane Chapman

John Allan
Jane Chapman
💍 1874/7270

Bachelor
Spinster

Bushman

34 years
21 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of Mr Geo Calder, North East Valley

74/474

21 January 1874

Revd. J. Copeland

No	31
Date of Notice	31 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Allen	Jane Chapman
BDM Match (95%)	John Allan	Jane Chapman
	💍 1874/7270
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bushman
Age	34 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr Geo Calder, North East Valley
Folio	74/474
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Revd. J. Copeland

23 January 1874

William Henry Beck
Amanda Eliza Chapman

William Henry Beck
Amanda Eliza Chapman
💍 1874/7234

Bachelor
Spinster

Minister

36 years
24 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
10 years

In the house of Henry Chapman, Filleul Street, Dunedin

74/461

23 January 1874

Rev C. W. Rigg

No	32
Date of Notice	23 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Beck	Amanda Eliza Chapman
	💍 1874/7234
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Minister
Age	36 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	10 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Henry Chapman, Filleul Street, Dunedin
Folio	74/461
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev C. W. Rigg

27 January 1874

Charles Fraser
Mary Ann Jane McCarthy

Charles Fraser
Mary Ann Jane McArthy
💍 1874/7144

Bachelor
Spinster

Printer

23 years
18 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

4 years
3 days

In the house of Joseph Walsham, Moray Place, Dunedin

74/429

Michael McCarthy, father

27 January 1874

Rev Dr. Stuart

No	33
Date of Notice	27 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Fraser	Mary Ann Jane McCarthy
BDM Match (95%)	Charles Fraser	Mary Ann Jane McArthy
	💍 1874/7144
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Printer
Age	23 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	4 years	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Joseph Walsham, Moray Place, Dunedin
Folio	74/429
Consent	Michael McCarthy, father
Date of Certificate	27 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev Dr. Stuart

27 January 1874

Hugh Ross
Jessie Ross

Hugh Ross
Jessie Ross
💍 1874/7141

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

29 years
24 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
2 years

In the house of Alexander Watt, North East Valley

74/428

27 January 1874

Rev Dr Stuart

No	34
Date of Notice	27 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Ross	Jessie Ross
	💍 1874/7141
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	29 years	24 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Alexander Watt, North East Valley
Folio	74/428
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev Dr Stuart

27 January 1874

Donald Gunn Polson
Janet Campbell Gillies

Donald Gunn Polson
Janet Campbell Gillies
💍 1874/7273

Bachelor
Spinster

Runholder

35 years
25 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
2 years

In the house of James Hunter, Cumberland Street Dunedin

74/475

27 January 1874

Rev Dr Copland

No	35
Date of Notice	27 January 1874
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Donald Gunn Polson	Janet Campbell Gillies
	💍 1874/7273
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Runholder
Age	35 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	2 years
Marriage Place	In the house of James Hunter, Cumberland Street Dunedin
Folio	74/475
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1874
Officiating Minister	Rev Dr Copland

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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 1903. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).