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 750

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1875

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
181	25 May 1875	Alexander Le Brum Jane Esther Marrett	Alexander Le Brun Jan Esther Marrett 💍 1875/1365	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	35 years 30 years	Fortbury Fortbury	5 years 3 years	In the house of Harry Speers, Great King St, Dunedin	75/1464		25 May 1875	Rev. D. Stuart
182	25 May 1875	George Luscan Caroline Lyons	George Jusein Caroline Lyons 💍 1875/1344	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 years 28 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 years 11 years	In the Union Hotel, Stafford Street, Dunedin	75/1465		25 May 1875	Rev. D. Stuart
183	20 May 1875	Thomas McLean Catherine Barron	Thomas Willis Catherine Lawlor 💍 1875/346	Widower Spinster	Publican	40 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	6 years 4 years	In Knox Church	75/1480		20 May 1875	Rev. Dr. Stuart
184	26 May 1875	Samuel Mee Margaret Mulligan	Samuel Mee Margaret Mulligan 💍 1875/1521	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	28 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 15 months	In St. Paul's Church	75/1495		26 May 1875	Rev. E. Edwards
185	26 May 1875	Robert Cotton Margaret Dickson	Robert Cotton Margaret Dickson 💍 1875/1519	Bachelor Widow	Publican	35 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Paul's Church	75/1493		26 May 1875	Rev. E. Edwards
186	28 May 1875	George Cann Ellen Power	George Cann Ellen Power 💍 1875/1522 Garret Roche Ellen Power 💍 1875/2493	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Tailoress	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 1 year	In St. Paul's Church	75/1496		28 May 1875	Rev. E. Edwards
187	28 May 1875	Moses O'Brien Catherine King	Morris OBrien Catherine King 💍 1875/1422	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	31 years 21 years	Dunedin Kensington	3 days 3 months	In St. Joseph's Church	75/1521		28 May 1875	Rev. W. Coleman
188	1 June 1875	John Colvin Isabella Thompson	John Colvin Isabella Thompson 💍 1875/1348	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	36 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1/2 years 3 years	In the house of W. C. Thompson	75/1469		1 June 1875	Rev. D. Stuart
189	1 June 1875	Frederick James Lake Anne Louisa Anderson	Frederick James Sake Annie Louisa Anderson 💍 1875/1349	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith Servant	20 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	12 years 2 years	In the house of I. O. Sutherland	75/1470	Mr. Lake, father	1 June 1875	Rev. D. Stuart
190	1 June 1875	John Alexander Hislop Elizabeth Emma Jackson	John Alexander Hislop Eliza Emma Inkson 💍 1875/1345	Bachelor Spinster	Articled Clerk	26 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 18 months	In the house of John Hislop, Forth Street, Dunedin	75/1466		1 June 1875	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 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).