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 749

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
172	17 May 1875	Robert Collins Catherine Ellis	Robert Collins Catharine Ellis 💍 1875/1362	Bachelor Spinster	Cooper General Servant	28 years 19 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 12 years	In the house of Mrs. Selma Collins, Hanover Street, Dunedin	75/1461	Person giving consent no consent	17 May 1875	Revd. R. L. Stuart, Ord.
173	17 May 1875	John Reid Knowles Annie Jeffery	John Reid Knowles Annie Tuffery 💍 1875/1433	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter General Servant	25 years 23 years	Dunedin Dunedin	11 months 11 months	In the Baptist Chapel, Dunedin	75/1508		17 May 1875	Revd. Upton Davis, Bapt.
174	18 May 1875	Michael O'Brien Bridget Kavanagh	Michael OBrien Bridget Kavanagh 💍 1875/1428	Bachelor Spinster	Drayman	20 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 10 months	In St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin	75/1526	No person required for consent in either case	18 May 1875	Revd. W. Coleman, R.C.
175	18 May 1875	William Henry White Annie Smith	William Henry White Annie Smitt 💍 1875/1364	Widower Widow	Mason	56 years 34 years	Dunedin Dunedin	5 years 4 1/2 years	In the house of William Thomas Great, King St, Dunedin	75/1466		18 May 1875	Revd. R. L. Stuart, Ord.
176	20 May 1875	Christopher Brown Emma Elizabeth Elmbridge	Christopher Brown Emma Elizabeth Ambridge 💍 1875/1518	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	34 years 20 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 days 14 years	In St. Paul's Church, Dunedin	75/1492	Henry Elmbridge, father	20 May 1875	Revd. E. G. Edwards, C. of E.
177	25 May 1875	John Morton Annie Goodman	John Morton Patterson Annie Woodman 💍 1875/1520	Widower Spinster	Mariner	50 years 30 years	Dunedin Dunedin	9 months 9 months	In St. Paul's Church, Dunedin	75/1494		25 May 1875	Revd. E. G. Edwards, C. of E.
178	25 May 1875	Francis Hannagan Mary Jessie Sansway	Francis Hannagan Mary Jessie Donovan 💍 1875/1429	Bachelor Spinster	Foundryman	24 years 24 years	Dunedin Dunedin	14 years 2 years	In St. Joseph's Church, Dunedin	75/1527	William Sansway, father	26 May 1875	Revd. Bishop Moran, R.C.
179	8 May 1875	Archibald Fraser Isabella Robertson	Archibald Fraser Isabella Robertson 💍 1875/1496 Richard Rogers Isabella Robertson 💍 1876/197	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	28 years 25 years	Caversham Caversham	6 months 12 months	In the Church of the Revd. J. Stuart Russell, Caversham	75/1570		8 May 1875	Revd. J. Stuart Russell, C. of S.
180	18 May 1875	Alexander Gaten Lamiot Marjory McDonald	Alexander Gatier Samiot Marjory McDonald 💍 1875/1363	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	21 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	10 months 8 months	In the house of John Murray, Brown Street, Dunedin	75/1462		18 May 1875	Revd. R. L. Stuart, Ord.

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).