Intentions to Marry, 1889

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840401, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Carole at Archives NZ Wellington, May 23 2025

Page 700

District of Dunedin Quarter ending 30 June 1889

No	Date of Notice	Names and Surnames of Parties	BDM Match	Condition	Calling or Profession	Age	Dwelling Place	Length of Residence	Marriage Place	Folio	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
146	6 May 1889	Donald Fraser Murie Emma Jane Pezzet	Donald Fraser Murie Emma Jane Peget 💍 1889/2040	Bachelor Spinster	Salesman	27 years 24 years	Andersons Bay South Dunedin	1 month 15 years	In the house of Peter Paxton	89/1652	6 May 1889	Revd W. Campbell, Presbyterian Minister
147	6 May 1889	Charles Hayes Ada Forrester Smith	Charles Hales Ada Forrester Smett 💍 1889/666	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	23 years 22 years	Dunedin Dunedin	7 weeks 10 years	In the house of Revd S. Stuart	89/1678	6 May 1889	Revd S. Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
148	7 May 1889	John Bridgman Mary O'Keeffe	John Bridgman Mary O'Keefe 💍 1889/1707	Bachelor Spinster	Police Constable	37 years 26 years	Dunedin Dunedin	2 years 6 years	In St Josephs Cathedral	89/1713	7 May 1889	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
149	7 May 1889	Zimler Metry Laetitia Wilson	Zimler Metz Laetitia Wilson 💍 1889/1684	Bachelor Spinster	Hairdresser	26 years 25 years	Dunedin Mosgiel	7 years 5 years	In the Office of the Registrar of Marriages Dunedin	89/1706	7 May 1889	A. R. Ure, Registrar of Marriages
150	8 May 1889	Donald David Fraser Phoebe Mary Josephine Marr	Donald David Fraser Phoebe Mary Josephine Marr 💍 1889/1713	Widower Spinster	Stillman	43 years 29 years	Dunedin Dunedin	8 years 13 years	In St Josephs Cathedral	89/1714	8 May 1889	Revd P. Lynch, Roman Catholic Priest
151	8 May 1889	Hugh Goodlet Emily Westcott	Hugh Goodlet Emily West Colt 💍 1889/667	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	24 years 24 years	Leith Valley Leith Valley	6 years 1 month	In the house of Andrew Goodlet	89/1679	8 May 1889	Revd Dr Stuart, Presbyterian Minister
152	9 May 1889	John Harkness Caroline Harding Satchell	John Harkness Caroline Harding Satchell 💍 1889/2053	Bachelor Spinster	Schoolmaster	35 years 37 years	Dunedin Caversham	3 days 5 days	In St Pauls Church	89/1641	9 May 1889	Revd A. Gifford, Church of England 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).