Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 853

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1879 Registrar A. R. Eve

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

27 January 1879

Robert Tosh Dickie
Margaret Ann Allan

Robert Tosh Dickie
Margaret Ann Allen
💍 1879/786

Bachelor
Spinster

Engineer

20 years
20 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

18 years
18 years

In the house of John Allan, Albany Street

79/1692

Ann Dickie, mother of Minor; John Allan, father of Minor

16 January 1879

Revd Dr Stuart

No	27
Date of Notice	27 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Robert Tosh Dickie	Margaret Ann Allan
BDM Match (97%)	Robert Tosh Dickie	Margaret Ann Allen
	💍 1879/786
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Engineer
Age	20 years	20 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	18 years	18 years
Marriage Place	In the house of John Allan, Albany Street
Folio	79/1692
Consent	Ann Dickie, mother of Minor; John Allan, father of Minor
Date of Certificate	16 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

28 January 1879

Alexander Thompson
Maggie Bell Russell

Alexander Thompson
Maggie Bell Russell
💍 1879/852

Bachelor
Spinster

Bricklayer
Machinist

22 years
22 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
16 years

In the house of Mrs Agnes Thompson, Maclaggan Street

79/1929

16 January 1879

Revd Dr Stuart

No	28
Date of Notice	28 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Alexander Thompson	Maggie Bell Russell
	💍 1879/852
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Bricklayer	Machinist
Age	22 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	16 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs Agnes Thompson, Maclaggan Street
Folio	79/1929
Consent
Date of Certificate	16 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

29 January 1879

Joseph Nancarrow Sims
Elizabeth Anne Brodie

Joseph Nancarrow
Elizabeth Anne Brodie
💍 1879/793

Bachelor
Spinster

Insurance Manager

24 years
22 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

8 days
12 years

In the house of Mrs George Brodie, Cargill Street

79/1921

20 January 1879

Revd J J Lewis

No	29
Date of Notice	29 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Joseph Nancarrow Sims	Elizabeth Anne Brodie
BDM Match (88%)	Joseph Nancarrow	Elizabeth Anne Brodie
	💍 1879/793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Insurance Manager
Age	24 years	22 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	8 days	12 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs George Brodie, Cargill Street
Folio	79/1921
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd J J Lewis

30 January 1879

James Knarston
Jemima Matches

James Knarston
Jemima Matches
💍 1879/862

Widower
Spinster

Store Keeper
Housemaid

37 years
26 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

3 days
3 days

In the house of Mrs John Robertson, George Street

79/1982

20 January 1879

Revd Dr Stuart

No	30
Date of Notice	30 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Knarston	Jemima Matches
	💍 1879/862
Condition	Widower	Spinster
Profession	Store Keeper	Housemaid
Age	37 years	26 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	3 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the house of Mrs John Robertson, George Street
Folio	79/1982
Consent
Date of Certificate	20 January 1879
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

31 January 1879

William Henry Back
Lucy Howard

William Henry Back
Lucy Howard
💍 1879/762

Bachelor
Widow

Master Mariner

34 years
48 years

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 days
3 days

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages

79/2034

21 January 1879

A R Eve, Registrar of Marriages

No	31
Date of Notice	31 January 1879
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Henry Back	Lucy Howard
	💍 1879/762
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Master Mariner
Age	34 years	48 years
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 days	3 days
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages
Folio	79/2034
Consent
Date of Certificate	21 January 1879
Officiating Minister	A R Eve, Registrar of Marriages

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 1908. 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).