Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 790

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1875 Registrar W. P. Street

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
424	23 November 1875	William Hagan Elizabeth Jones	William Hagan Elizabeth Jones 💍 1875/2537 William Henry Whitehead Elizabeth Jones 💍 1875/676	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Housemaid	23 years 22 years	Andersons Bay Andersons Bay	7 months 12 months	In St Pauls Church, Dunedin	75/248		23 November 1875	Revd Wilfred N Leeson
425	24 November 1875	Samuel Dyer Jessie Riddell	Samuel Dyer Jessie Riddell 💍 1875/2792	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer Dressmaker	23 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 months 1 week	In Knox Church, Dunedin	75/258	George Riddell, father	24 November 1875	Revd D. M. Stuart
426	24 November 1875	James Robertson Martha Crosby	James Robertson Martha Crossby 💍 1875/2770 James Robertson Elizabeth Mary Hamilton Long 💍 1875/2550	Bachelor Widow	Laborer Servant	27 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 years 1 1/2 years	In Knox Church, Dunedin	75/260		24 November 1875	Revd D. M. Stuart
427	25 November 1875	Charles Randell Elizabeth Gwynn	Charles Randell Elizabeth Gwyn 💍 1875/3209	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	27 years 18 years	Broad Bay Broad Bay	10 months 17 years	In Baptist Church, Dunedin	75/3023	James Gwynn, father	25 November 1875	Revd Joseph Upton Davis
428	1 December 1875	William Berryman Mary Greening	William Berryman Mary Greening 💍 1875/3207	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Dressmaker	28 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 months 12 months	In St Mathews Church, Dunedin	75/3028		1 December 1875	Revd Edward S Penny
429	1 December 1875	Walter Dodd Jane Renton	Paul Hillebert Holmes Jane Renton 💍 1875/391 William Stewart Jane Renton 💍 1875/3119	Bachelor Spinster	Steward	20 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 months 10 months	In the house of Mrs Hall, Argyle collage, Castle Street, Dunedin	75/2566	proper person to give consent	1 December 1875	Revd D. M. Stuart
430	1 December 1875	Alexander Black Kate Prentice	Alexander Black Kate Prentice 💍 1875/2772	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	28 years 24 years	Dunedin Kensington	2 years 4 days	In St Andrews Church, Dunedin	75/2562	proper person to give consent	1 December 1875	Revd John Gow
431	2 December 1875	Joseph Yefford Ward Margaret Murphy	Joseph Kefford Ward Margaret Murphy 💍 1875/3138	Bachelor Widow	Miner	40 years 33 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In the Roman Catholic Church, Dunedin	75/2924		2 December 1875	Most Revd Patrick Moran

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 1899. 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).