Intentions to Marry, 1872

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840384, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 565

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Jul - Sep

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
275	2 July 1872	Thomas Richmond Ellen Wilson	Thomas Richmond Ellen Wilson 💍 1872/8540	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	25 19	Oamaru Oamaru	1 Year 4 Mo	Dwelling house of Mr. Wm. Wilson, Oamaru	72/2326	John Williamson, an uncle	2 July 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd
276	5 July 1872	John McLeod Mary Brown	John Macintosh Mary Brown 💍 1872/8546	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	28 32	Oamaru Oamaru	1 year 5 Years	Residence of Mr. Spriggs, Oamaru	72/2328		5 July 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd
277	5 July 1872	Christoffel Franciscus Le Grand Harriett Millard		Bachelor Widow	Carpenter	30 45	Makauni Wash Oamaru	6 Years 9 Months	Residence of Mr. Thomas Patterson, Oamaru	72/2327		5 July 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd
278	13 July 1872	Michael William Mason Driscott Jane Wilson	Michael W M Driscoll Jane Wilson 💍 1872/8549	Bachelor Spinster	Meat Preserver	27 23	Makauni North Makauni North	2 Years 9 Months	The Manse, Oamaru	72/2329		13 July 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd
279	19 Aug 1872	Edward Lynn Margaret Mooney	Edmund Flynn Margaret Mooney 💍 1872/8729	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper	30 22	Makauni North Makauni North	1 Year 10 Months	The Royal Hotel	72/2330		19 Aug 1872	Rev. L. Donovan
280	30 Aug 1872	Henry William Marshall Mary Ann Jardine	Henry Wilson Marshall Mary Ann Jardine 💍 1872/8555	Bachelor Spinster	Dairyman	29 20	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 2 Months	Residence of Mr. John Ferro, Oamaru	72/2331		30 Aug 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd
281	25 Sept. 1872	Richard Duncan Agnes McNab	Richard Duncan Agnes McNab 💍 1872/8558	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	21 20	Makauni North Papakaio Plain	18 Months 2 Years	Residence of Mr. McNab, Papakaio	72/2332	Arch. McNab, father	25 Sept. 1872	Rev. A. B. Todd

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).