Intentions to Marry, 1880

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840392, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 847

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 March 1880 Registrar A R Ure

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

22 January 1880

William Torrance
Jeanie Muirhead

William Terrance
Jeanie Muirhead
💍 1880/1113

Bachelor
Spinster

Laborer
Dressmaker

22
21

Halfway Bush
Halfway Bush

1 year
2 weeks

In the house of James Torrance, Halfway Bush

80/504

22 January 1880

Revd Dr Stuart

No	18
Date of Notice	22 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Torrance	Jeanie Muirhead
BDM Match (97%)	William Terrance	Jeanie Muirhead
	💍 1880/1113
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Laborer	Dressmaker
Age	22	21
Dwelling Place	Halfway Bush	Halfway Bush
Length of Residence	1 year	2 weeks
Marriage Place	In the house of James Torrance, Halfway Bush
Folio	80/504
Consent
Date of Certificate	22 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

23 January 1880

James Alexander
Sarah McCleland

James Alexander
Sarah McCleland
💍 1880/890

Bachelor
Spinster

Farmer
Domestic Servant

35
23

Green Island
Dunedin

5 years
6 months

In the Office of the Registrar of marriages, Dunedin

80/477

23 January 1880

A. R. Ure Registrar of marriages

No	19
Date of Notice	23 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	James Alexander	Sarah McCleland
	💍 1880/890
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Farmer	Domestic Servant
Age	35	23
Dwelling Place	Green Island	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	6 months
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of marriages, Dunedin
Folio	80/477
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1880
Officiating Minister	A. R. Ure Registrar of marriages

23 January 1880

Thomas Blunden
Rose Elizabeth Patch

Thomas Blunden
Rose Elizabeth Patch
💍 1880/1115

Bachelor
Spinster

Plasterer

29
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
12 years

In Knox Church, Dunedin

80/506

23 January 1880

Revd Dr Stuart

No	20
Date of Notice	23 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Blunden	Rose Elizabeth Patch
	💍 1880/1115
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Plasterer
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	12 years
Marriage Place	In Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	80/506
Consent
Date of Certificate	23 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

24 January 1880

Thomas Endell Wanklyn
Elizabeth Agnes Mary Gerkens

Thomas Endell Wanklyn
Elizabeth Agnes Mary Gerkens
💍 1880/891

Bachelor
Spinster

Miner

23
17

Dunedin
Dunedin

10 days
10 days

In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin

80/478

Claus Gerkens, father of minor

24 January 1880

A. R. Ure Registrar of Marriages

No	21
Date of Notice	24 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Thomas Endell Wanklyn	Elizabeth Agnes Mary Gerkens
	💍 1880/891
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Miner
Age	23	17
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	10 days	10 days
Marriage Place	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Dunedin
Folio	80/478
Consent	Claus Gerkens, father of minor
Date of Certificate	24 January 1880
Officiating Minister	A. R. Ure Registrar of Marriages

27 January 1880

William Mill
Bethia Campbell

William Mill
Bethia Campbell
💍 1880/602

Bachelor
Widow

Stonemason

27
35

Dunedin
Dunedin

5 years
6 years

In the house of Revd Lindsay Mackie, Dunedin

80/3177

27 January 1880

Revd Lindsay Mackie

No	22
Date of Notice	27 January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	William Mill	Bethia Campbell
	💍 1880/602
Condition	Bachelor	Widow
Profession	Stonemason
Age	27	35
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	5 years	6 years
Marriage Place	In the house of Revd Lindsay Mackie, Dunedin
Folio	80/3177
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd Lindsay Mackie

27January 1880

Walter Francis Knowles
Marion Mayne McWilliam

Walter Francis Knowles
Marion Mayne MacWilliam
💍 1880/1793

Bachelor
Spinster

Painter

29
21

Dunedin
Dunedin

6 years
3 years

In Knox Church, Dunedin

80/508

27 January 1880

Revd Dr Stuart

No	23
Date of Notice	27January 1880
	Groom	Bride
Names of Parties	Walter Francis Knowles	Marion Mayne McWilliam
BDM Match (98%)	Walter Francis Knowles	Marion Mayne MacWilliam
	💍 1880/1793
Condition	Bachelor	Spinster
Profession	Painter
Age	29	21
Dwelling Place	Dunedin	Dunedin
Length of Residence	6 years	3 years
Marriage Place	In Knox Church, Dunedin
Folio	80/508
Consent
Date of Certificate	27 January 1880
Officiating Minister	Revd Dr Stuart

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

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Attribution: This image was digitised by Archives NZ Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga and is republished here under CC BY. It has been cropped and rotated for convenience.

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).

Primary digitisation of registers between 1855 and 1925 is now complete. Our digitisation volunteers are now working on verifying the currently digitised pages against printed district/page indexes, to identify pages which may have been missed or out of focus. These pages can be re-imaged as required.

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.

How can I help?

You can sign up to correct errors in the transcribed records and match ITMs with registered marriages.

You can also support this project by ☕ Buying us a coffee 🌳

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).