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 748

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
163	10 May 1875	George Stephens Jane Alice Beane	George Stephens Jane Alice Deane 💍 1875/1517	Bachelor Widow	Seaman	25 years 38 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St Pauls Church Dunedin	75/1491		10 May 1875	Revd. E. G. Edwards
164	11 May 1875	George Madigan Lucy Andrews	George Madigan Lucy Andrews 💍 1875/1415	Bachelor Spinster	Licensed Waterman Domestic Servant	21 years 19 years	Port Chalmers Dunedin	13 years 6 months	In St Matthews Church Dunedin	75/1504	Henry Andrews, Father	11 May 1875	Revd. W. S. Henry
165	13 May 1875	Alfred George Euphemia Simpson	Alford George Euphemia Simpson 💍 1875/1525	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	24 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 10 years	In the Congregational Church Dunedin	75/1499		13 May 1875	Revd. W. Roseby
166	13 May 1875	Robert Borthwick Jane Elizabeth Hallett	Robert Borthwick Jane Elizabeth Hallett 💍 1875/1359	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	30 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 weeks	In Knox Church Dunedin	75/1458		13 May 1875	Revd. W. Stuart
167	13 May 1875	David Dubois Jane McLeod	David Dubvis Jane McLeod 💍 1875/1391	Widower Spinster	Storekeeper	55 years 25 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 14 days	In the office of the Regr of Marriages Dunedin	75/1531	Information Esqre	13 May 1875
168	13 May 1875	Francis Gallagher Ellen O'Connor	Francis Gallagher Ellen OConnor 💍 1875/1421 Patrick Gallagher Mary OConnor 💍 1875/143	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	37 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 2 years	In St Josephs Church Dunedin	75/1520		13 May 1875	Revd. W. Coleman
169	14 May 1875	Michael Dryden Catherine Amelia Charlotta Hundsor	Michael Dryden Catherine Amelia Charlotte Windsor 💍 1875/1360	Bachelor Spinster	Expressman Dressmaker	22 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	16 years 4 years	In the house of John Michel Cumberland Street Dunedin	75/1452		14 May 1875	Revd. W. Stuart
170	15 May 1875	Joseph Darlington Carolina Erickson	Joseph Darlington Caroline Erickson 💍 1875/1438	Bachelor Spinster	Wheelwright Domestic Servant	27 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In all Saints Church Dunedin	75/1513		15 May 1875	Revd. W. Stanford
171	15 May 1875	Patrick Garty Maria Kene	Patrick Garty Maria Kene 💍 1875/1420	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Domestic Servant	32 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 days 7 days	In St Josephs Church Dunedin	75/1519		15 May 1875	Revd. W. Coleman

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).