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 527

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
164	1 April 1868	Alexander Campbell Paterson Isabella Beck	Alexander Campbell Paterson Isabella Beck 💍 1868/9892	Bachelor Widow	Freezer	28 26	Oamaru	9 Months 12 Months	Dwelling house of Mr. Guy Bennett, Oamaru	1809		2 April 1868	Rev. James F. Williams
165	2 April 1868	Eyre Evans Charlotte Lees	Eyre Frederic Fitzgeorge Evans Charlotte Lees 💍 1868/9925 Edward Samuel Lees Charlotte Lees 💍 1868/10189	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	25 20	Waireka Peveraki	1 Year 3 Years	Residence of Mr. James Lees, Peveraki	1620		3 April 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
166	9 April 1868	John McLay Catherine Sutherland	John Mackay Forester Catherine Sutherland 💍 1868/9901	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	34 32	Oamaru	7 Years 3 Months	Dwelling house of Mr. J. Mc. Forrester, Oamaru	1812		3 April 1868	Rev. Charles Common
167	14 April 1868	Dugald Allan Isabella Clerk	Dugald Allen Isabella Clerke 💍 1868/9928	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	23 22	Anamoa Oamaru	15 Months 1 Year	St. Luke's Church, Oamaru	1821		14 April 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
168	17 April 1868	William Kitch Elizabeth Murray	William Vietch Elizabeth Murray 💍 1868/9973	Bachelor Spinster	Stockman	29 21	Oamaru	2 years 15 Months	Dwelling house of Mr. W. Veitch, Oamaru	1836		17 April 1868	Rev. James A. Taylor
169	22 April 1868	George Sears Melanie Hall	George Sears Mellanie Halls 💍 1868/9931	Bachelor Spinster	Coach driver Domestic Servant	37 28	Oamaru	1 Year 5 Months	St. Luke's Church Oamaru	1822		23 April 1868	Rev. Algernon Gifford
170	9 May 1868	Robert Scott Isabella Pringle	Robert Scott Isabella Pringle 💍 1868/9988	Bachelor Widow	Shepherd	39 39	Otepopo Otepopo	7 Weeks 2 Years	Dwelling house of Isabella Pringle, Otepopo	1841		9 May 1868	Rev. John Ryley
171	13 May 1868	Alexander Walker Eliza Brown	Alexander Walker Eliza Brown 💍 1868/9904	Bachelor Spinster	Roughman	21 21	Oamaru	7 years 2 years	Dwelling house of ---, Oamaru	1831		13 May 1868	Rev. Charles Common
172	26 May 1868	William Frances Kinnear Jessie Lee	William Francis Kinnear Jessie Lee 💍 1868/9976	Bachelor Widow	Gentleman	31 24	Oamaru	5 Months 1 Month	Dwelling house of J. J. Richards - Oamaru	1839		26 May 1868	Rev. James A. Taylor
173	29 May 1868	George Henry Heaper Jemima May	George Henry Heaps Jemima Hay 💍 1868/9907	Bachelor Spinster	Woolwasher Dom. Servt.	22 19	Oamaru Otepopo	2 Weeks 3 Months	The Alliance, Oamaru	1874		29 May 1868	Rev. Charles Common
174	1 June 1868	George James Bentley Janet Bain	George James Bentley Janet Bain 💍 1868/9934	Bachelor Spinster	Exp. driver Dom. Servt.	20 28	Oamaru	1 year 1 Year	St. Luke's Church Oamaru	923	Charles Bentley, Father	1 June 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).