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 309

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 September 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
212	27 July 1885	George Charles West Henrietta Louisa Eyre	George Chamber West Henrietta Louisa Eyre 💍 1885/2452	Bachelor Spinster	Tinsmith	78 24	Dunedin Dunedin	19 years 23 years	In St. Paul's Church	85/2607		27 July 1885	Ven Archdeacon Edwards
213	28 July 1885	John Petersen Ann Mason McNae	John Petersen Ann Mason McNae 💍 1885/2763	Bachelor Spinster	Miner Dressmaker	45 36	South Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In Knox Church	85/2661		28 July 1885	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
214	28 July 1885	Robert McConnell Frances Timlin	Robert McConnell Frances Timlin 💍 1885/2492	Bachelor Spinster	Farrier	22 21	Dunedin Dunedin	10 years 12 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	85/2634		28 July 1885	A R Ure, Registrar of Marriages
215	29 July 1885	William Kroon Margaret Fraser	William Kroon Margaret Fraser 💍 1885/2654	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher	20 20	Dunedin Burnside	20 years 3 years	In the house of John Fraser	85/2637	Euphemia Kay Henry and John Fraser parents of Minor	29 July 1885	Revd Dr Watt, Presbyterian Minister
216	30 July 1885	William Brown Janet Selingin	William Brown Janet Clingin 💍 1885/2493 William Brown Jane Davidson Cameron 💍 1885/1914	Bachelor Widow	Baker	26 32	South Dunedin South Dunedin	3 days 18 months	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages	85/2635		30 July 1885	A R Ure, Registrar of Marriage
217	31 July 1885	John Cullen Mary Eliza Stevenson	John Cullen Mary Eliza Stevenson 💍 1885/2458	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	26 21	Dunedin Dunedin	3 days 3 days	In St. Joseph's Chapel	85/2608		31 July 1885	Revd Dr Walsh, Roman Catholic Priest

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).