Intentions to Marry, 1868

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840380, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 525

District of Quarter ending

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
153	5 January 1868	John Johnson Ann Curran	John Johnson Ann Curran 💍 1868/9958	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Domestic Servant	26 27	Oamaru Oamaru	9 months 2 months	Registrar's Office	1831		5 January 1868	Thomas W. Parker, Reg.
154	10 February 1868	Ehrhardt Anton Mary Dunlop Finlay	Ehrhardt A Weitzel Mary Dunlop Finlay 💍 1868/9895	Bachelor Spinster	Painter Housemaid	28 26	Oamaru Oamaru	3 months 4 Months		1810		10 February 1868	Rev. Charles Connor
155	11 February 1868	William Williamson Barbara Grove	John Williamson Barbara Spouse 💍 1868/9910	Widower Spinster	Mariner Dress Maker	44 32	Oamaru Oamaru	9 Months 3 Years	St Luke's Church	1815		11 February 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
156	29 March 1868	Peter Gunbar Annie Hautin	Peter Dunbar Annie Rankin 💍 1868/9898	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	25 18	Oamaru Oamaru	12 months 7 years	Residence of Mrs McQuarrie	1811	Mary McQuarrie, Mother	March 1868	Rev. Charles Connor
157	6 March 1868	Alexander Gibson Rebecca Jane Sunnies	Alexander Gibson Rebecca Jane Simms 💍 1868/9913	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	24 21	Fin Valley	1 Year 1 Year	Dwelling house of Mr. Nicholas Simons, Fin Valley	1816		6 March 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
158	12 March 1868	John Mylie Eliza Jane Clarke	John Wylie Eliza Jane Clarke 💍 1868/9964	Bachelor Widow	Carpenter Dress maker	35 28	Oamaru Oamaru	1 Year 7 months	Dwelling house of Mr. Finch, Oamaru			12 March 1868	Rev. James A. Taylor
159	12 March 1868	John Creamer Mary Ann Williams	John Creamer Mary Ann Williams 💍 1868/9919	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	8 months 4 years	Residence of John Creamer, Oamaru			12 March 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
160	13 March 1868	James Paterson Margaret Cameron	Thomas Swain Margaret Cameron 💍 1868/8552	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Cap maker	24 27	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 14 months	St Luke's Church			13 March 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
161	17 March 1868	George Milby Agnes Gosling	George Wilby Agnes Gosling 💍 1868/9967	Widower Spinster	Wool sorter Milliner	43 20	Oamaru Oamaru	20 days 4 days	Residence of Rev. J. A. Taylor, Oamaru			17 March 1868	Rev. James A. Taylor
162	19 March 1868	William Woods Mary Ann Elizabeth Upton	William Woods Mary Ann Elizabeth Upton 💍 1868/9922	Bachelor Spinster	Mail driver	23 20	Oamaru Oamaru	18 months 4 months	Residence of John Upton, Oamaru		John Upton, Father	19 March 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford

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).