Intentions to Marry, 1866

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840378, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 429

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
96	3 January 1866	John Mclaught Ann Jennings	Joseph McNaught Ann Jennings 💍 1866/9541	Bachelor Spinster	Fellmonger Domestic Servant	28 24	Cave Valley do	1½ Yr 6 Mo	The House of Joseph Hay Fernant Oamaru	1783		3 January 1866	Rev. Charles Connor
97	11 January 1866	Richard Benneth Mary Agnes Strachan	Richard Bennett Mary Agnes Strahan 💍 1866/9571	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 21	Kakanui do	4 Mo	Episcopal Church Oamaru	1793		11 January 1866	Rev. Algernon Gifford
98	17 January 1866	David Kennedy Janet Gray	David Kennedy Janet Gray 💍 1866/9580	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	26 18	Maerewhenua Oamaru	4 Yrs 1 Year	Registrars Office Oamaru	1796	John Gray Father	18 January 1866	James Ashcroft Deputy Reg. Oamaru
99	18 January 1866	John Reid Junr. Janet Horn	John Reid Janet Horn 💍 1866/9544	Bachelor Spinster	Sawyer	28 28	Hampden do	5 Yrs 7 Mo	House of John Reid Senr. Hampden	1784		18 January 1866	Rev. Charles Connor
100	23 January 1866	William Frame Elizabeth Ann Henderson	William Fearns Elizabeth Anne Henderson 💍 1866/9550	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Otepopo do	12 Mo	House of Thos. Henderson Otepopo	1786	Thomas Henderson Father	23 January 1866	Rev. Charles Connor
101	25 January 1866	Andrew Gray Margaret Amelia Allan	Andrew Gray Margaret Hamilton Allan 💍 1866/9547	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	21 23	Oamaru do	4 Yrs 12 Mo	House of W. H. Allan Oamaru	1785		25 January 1866	Rev. Charles Connor
102	22 February 1866	George Clark Mary Orr	George Clarke Mary Orr 💍 1866/9553	Bachelor Spinster	Bushman	29 26	Otepopo Round Hill	5 Years	House of John Orr Round Hill	1789		22 February 1866	Rev. Charles Connor
103	24 February 1866	Arthur Darchy Mary Murdoch Caldwell	Arthur Dansey Mary Murdoch Caldwell 💍 1866/9220	Bachelor Spinster	Mail Contractor Domestic	25 17	Oamaru Duntroon	6 Years	House of William Caldwell Papakaio Dry Duntroon	1792		24 February 1866	Rev. A.M. 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).

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).