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 728

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1875 Registrar H. Rawson Wood

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

25 January 1875

Joseph Daniel Slater
Amelia Manning

Joseph Daniel Slater
Amelia Manning
💍 1875/2995

Bachelor
Spinster

Draper

23 years
20 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

14 months
14 months

In the house of Mr David Street, Dunedin

75/204

No person to give consent

18 January 1875

Rev. R. L. Stuart, Ord.

No	25
Date of Notice	25 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Daniel Slater	Amelia Manning
	💍 1875/2995
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Draper
Age	23 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	14 months	14 months
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr David Street, Dunedin
Folio	75/204
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	18 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. L. Stuart, Ord.

26 January 1875

John Francis Martin
Maud Marion Grant

John Francis Martin
Maud Marion Grant
💍 1875/3134

Bachelor
Spinster

Mariner

24 years
23 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 months
2 months

In St Paul's Church, Dunedin

75/270

No person to give consent

19 January 1875

Rev. C. Edwards, Clergyman

No	26
Date of Notice	26 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Francis Martin	Maud Marion Grant
	💍 1875/3134
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Mariner
Age	24 years	23 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 months	2 months
Marriage Place	In St Paul's Church, Dunedin
Folio	75/270
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. Edwards, Clergyman

27 January 1875

John Barnett
Elizabeth Prescott

John Burnett
Elizabeth Ann Prescott
💍 1875/170

Bachelor
Spinster

Wheelwright
Domestic Servant

27 years
22 years

Kaikorai
Dunedin

5 years
2 years

In Knox Church, Dunedin

75/202

No person to give consent

19 January 1875

Rev. R. L. Stuart, Ord.

No	27
Date of Notice	27 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Barnett	Elizabeth Prescott
BDM Match (87%)	John Burnett	Elizabeth Ann Prescott
	💍 1875/170
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Wheelwright	Domestic Servant
Age	27 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Kaikorai	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	2 years
Marriage Place	In Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	75/202
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	19 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. R. L. Stuart, Ord.

28 January 1875

Hugh Sharp Clark
Margaret Stewart

Hugh Sharp Clark
Margaret Stewart
💍 1875/537

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer

38 years
39 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of Mr Miller, Cargill Street, Dunedin

75/638

No person to give consent

21 January 1875

Rev. James Clark, Ord.

No	28
Date of Notice	28 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Hugh Sharp Clark	Margaret Stewart
	💍 1875/537
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer
Age	38 years	39 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Mr Miller, Cargill Street, Dunedin
Folio	75/638
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. James Clark, Ord.

29 January 1875

John Darney
Jessie Brown

John Darney
Jessie Brown
💍 1875/171

Bachelor
Spinster

Bootmaker

30 years
20 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 months
5 months

In the house of the Rev. Stuart, Dunedin

75/203

No person to give consent

21 January 1875

Rev. D Stuart, Ord.

No	29
Date of Notice	29 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Darney	Jessie Brown
	💍 1875/171
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bootmaker
Age	30 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 months	5 months
Marriage Place	In the house of the Rev. Stuart, Dunedin
Folio	75/203
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. D Stuart, Ord.

30 January 1875

John Muir Shearer
Florence Wilkes

John Milne Shearer
Florence Wilkes
💍 1875/2434

Widower
Spinster

Engineer

40 years
22 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
10 years

In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

75/2320

No person to give consent

22 January 1875

Registrar of Marriages

No	30
Date of Notice	30 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Muir Shearer	Florence Wilkes
BDM Match (89%)	John Milne Shearer	Florence Wilkes
	💍 1875/2434
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	40 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In the office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	75/2320
Consent	No person to give consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Registrar of Marriages

31 January 1875

Joshua Reuben Chapman
Emma Baird

Joshua Rhuben Chapman
Minnie Baird
💍 1875/194

Bachelor
Spinster

Bookseller

22 years
18 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 years
4 years

In the house of Henry John Newman, Chapman Street, Dunedin

75/124

David Baird, father

23 January 1875

Rev. C. W. Nott, Clergyman

No	31
Date of Notice	31 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joshua Reuben Chapman	Emma Baird
BDM Match (73%)	Joshua Rhuben Chapman	Minnie Baird
	💍 1875/194
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bookseller
Age	22 years	18 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 years	4 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Henry John Newman, Chapman Street, Dunedin
Folio	75/124
Consent	David Baird, father
Date of Certificate	23 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. C. W. Nott, Clergyman

31 January 1875

John Riley Barton
Mary Malcolm

John Ceily Barton
Mary Mulqueen
💍 1875/3176

Bachelor
Spinster

Sawyer
Tailoress

27 years
19 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In St Joseph's Church, Dunedin

75/223

25 January 1875

Rev. Bishop Moran

No	32
Date of Notice	31 January 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	John Riley Barton	Mary Malcolm
BDM Match (68%)	John Ceily Barton	Mary Mulqueen
	💍 1875/3176
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Sawyer	Tailoress
Age	27 years	19 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In St Joseph's Church, Dunedin
Folio	75/223
Consent
Date of Certificate	25 January 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Bishop 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 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).