Intentions to Marry, 1885

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840397, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 293

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 31 December 1885

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
294	12 October 1885	Thomas Fitzgerald Elizabeth Shields	Thomas Fitzgerald Elizabeth Shields 💍 1885/3501	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	34 years 27 years	Dunedin Dunedin	4 days 4 days	In Knox Church	85/3597		12 October 1885	Revd. S. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
295	12 October 1885	John Walker Duncan Maria Ness	John Walker Duncan Maria Ness 💍 1885/3517	Widower Spinster	Settler	42 years 35 years	North East Valley North East Valley	36 years 3 years	In the Presbyterian Church	85/3589		12 October 1885	Revd. J. Borrie, Presbyterian Minister
296	13 October 1885	William Townley Christina Paton	William Townley Christina Paton 💍 1885/3524	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	28 years 30 years	Mornington Peninsula	3 weeks 22 years	In the house of Andrew Paton, Highcliffe	85/3630		13 October 1885	Revd. J. Greig, Presbyterian Minister
297	13 October 1885	Robert Stewart Elizabeth Matilda Walker	Robert Stewart Elizabeth Matilda Walker 💍 1885/3502	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	27 years 21 years	Dunedin Dunedin	1 month 21 years	In the house of John Fitzsimmons, High Street	85/3598		13 October 1885	Revd. S. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
298	13 October 1885	Richard John Germain Ruth Alice Dunnell	Richard John Serman Ruth Alice Dunnell 💍 1885/3456	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 years 24 years	Green Island Green Island	4 months 3 days	In St. Paul's Church	85/3552		13 October 1885	Ven. Archdeacon Edwards, Church of England Minister
299	14 October 1885	John Mathieson Barbara Alexandrina Brunton	John Mathieson Barbara Alexandria Brunton 💍 1885/3535	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	22 years 20 years	Tomahawk Tomahawk	22 years 7 years	In the house of Robert Brunton	85/3646	Robert Brunton, father of minor	14 October 1885	Revd. A. Cameron, Presbyterian Minister

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).