Intentions to Marry, 1873

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840385, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke Howison at Archives NZ Wellington, December 4 2024

Page 687

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1873

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
303	15 April 1873	Peter McNab Janet McFee	Peter McNab Janet McCrae 💍 1873/9160	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	39 24	Oamaru Oamaru	4 Months 6 Months	Dwelling house of Malcolm McBeor	73/1478	15 April 1873	Rev. J. M. McNaughton
304	27 April 1873	Thomas Aaron Barrett Harriett Thomas	Thomas Aaron Barrett Harriette Thomas 💍 1873/9148	Bachelor Widow	Painter Domestic Servant	45 29	Oamaru Oamaru	1 Year 2 Years	St Lukes Church	71/1474	27 April 1873	Rev. Algernon Gifford
305	29 April 1873	Thomas Maley Mary Ann Smart	Thomas Haley Mary Ann Smart 💍 1873/9151	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	35 25	Oamaru Oamaru	2 Years 10 years	St Luke's Church	73/1475	29 April 1873	Rev. Algernon Gifford
306	14 May 1873	Alexander Reid Anna Maria McEwen	Alexander Reid Anna Maria McEvenia 💍 1873/9127	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	33 27	Oamaru Oamaru	9 Months 12 Months	St Patricks Chapel	73/1467	14 May 1873	Rev. Jeremiah Donovan
307	3 June 1873	William Aitken Ann Jane Robertson Bain	William Aitken Ann Jane Robertson Bain 💍 1873/9166	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk Dress Maker	24 18	Oamaru Oamaru	9 Years 12 Years	Dwelling house of Mr. Alexr. Bain	73/1480	3 June 1873	Rev. A. B. Todd
308	4 June 1873	Alexander McLaggan Janet Macker	Alexander McLaggan Janet Walker 💍 1873/9169	Bachelor Spinster	Miller Domestic Servant	30 23	Oamaru Oamaru	18 Months 12 months	Brown's Private Hotel	73/1481	4 June 1873	Rev. A. B. Todd
309	11 June 1873	Norman Cave Catherine Smith	Norman Lane Catherine Smith 💍 1873/9172	Widower Spinster	Butcher	31 24	Oamaru Oamaru	7 Years 18 Months	The Manse	73/1482	11 June 1873	Rev. A. B. Todd

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).