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 763

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 1875 Registrar William Parker Street

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

253

19 July 1875

Charles Smith
Sarah Kent

Charles Smitt
Sarah Kent
💍 1875/2021

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer

30 years
25 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

15 months
18 months

In Knox Church Dunedin

75/2137

19 July 1875

Rev. D. Stuart

No	253
Date of Notice	19 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Charles Smith	Sarah Kent
BDM Match (96%)	Charles Smitt	Sarah Kent
	💍 1875/2021
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer
Age	30 years	25 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	15 months	18 months
Marriage Place	In Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	75/2137
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Stuart

254

19 July 1875

Alexander Ashton
Mary Ellis

Alexander Ashton
Mary Ellis
💍 1875/2027

Bachelor
Spinster

Actor

25 years
21 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
3 years

In Knox Church Dunedin

75/2157

19 July 1875

Rev. D. Stuart

No	254
Date of Notice	19 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Ashton	Mary Ellis
	💍 1875/2027
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Actor
Age	25 years	21 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	3 years
Marriage Place	In Knox Church Dunedin
Folio	75/2157
Consent
Date of Certificate	19 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. D. Stuart

255

20 July 1875

Robert Stirravour
Margaret McLean

Robert Stevenson Elias Miller
Margaret McLean
💍 1875/3118

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26 years
17 years

Blueskin
Blueskin

1 1/2 years
11 years

Other house of Murdoch McLean

75/2192

Murdoch McLean, father

20 July 1875

Rev. Wm. Johnston

No	255
Date of Notice	20 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Stirravour	Margaret McLean
BDM Match (69%)	Robert Stevenson Elias Miller	Margaret McLean
	💍 1875/3118
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Blueskin	Blueskin
Length of Residence	1 1/2 years	11 years
Marriage Place	Other house of Murdoch McLean
Folio	75/2192
Consent	Murdoch McLean, father
Date of Certificate	20 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. Wm. Johnston

256

20 July 1875

Henry Edmund Thomson
Harriet Smith

Henry Edmund Thomson
Harriet Smith
💍 1875/2499

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter

26 years
22 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
10 years

In the house of Henry Edmund Thomson, Gt King Street Dunedin

75/2689

20 July 1875

Rev. I. Lipton Davies Bap.

No	256
Date of Notice	20 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Henry Edmund Thomson	Harriet Smith
	💍 1875/2499
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter
Age	26 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	10 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Henry Edmund Thomson, Gt King Street Dunedin
Folio	75/2689
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. I. Lipton Davies Bap.

257

20 July 1875

William Higginson
Harriet Sharp

William Higginson
Harriett Sharp
💍 1875/2065

Bachelor
Spinster

Grocer
Dressmaker

20 years
20 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

2 years
12 months

In St. Matthews Church Dunedin

75/2196

Henry Sharp, father

20 July 1875

Rev. E. G. Penny

No	257
Date of Notice	20 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Higginson	Harriet Sharp
BDM Match (96%)	William Higginson	Harriett Sharp
	💍 1875/2065
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Grocer	Dressmaker
Age	20 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	2 years	12 months
Marriage Place	In St. Matthews Church Dunedin
Folio	75/2196
Consent	Henry Sharp, father
Date of Certificate	20 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. G. Penny

258

20 July 1875

James Bardwell
Susan Sharp

James Bardwell
Susan Sharp
💍 1875/2066

Bachelor
Spinster

Carpenter
Servant

23 years
17 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

12 months
12 months

In St. Matthews Church Dunedin

75/2197

Henry Sharp, father

20 July 1875

Rev. E. G. Penny

No	258
Date of Notice	20 July 1875
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Bardwell	Susan Sharp
	💍 1875/2066
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Carpenter	Servant
Age	23 years	17 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	12 months	12 months
Marriage Place	In St. Matthews Church Dunedin
Folio	75/2197
Consent	Henry Sharp, father
Date of Certificate	20 July 1875
Officiating Minister	Rev. E. G. Penny

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).