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 693

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 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	Consent	Date of Certificate	Officiating Minister
316	26 August 1873	Peter Williams Catherine Janet Giffors	Peter Williams Catherine Janet Gifford 💍 1873/11029	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	21 20	Oamaru Oamaru	5 months 11 years	St Lukes Church	73/2/23	Algernon Giffors, Father	13 October 1873	Rt. Revd. S.T. Nevill D.D.
319	1 October 1873	Thomas Lester Hannah Hubbard	Thomas Lester Hannah Hubbard 💍 1873/9190	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Domestic Servant	21 17	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 2 years	The Residence of Charles Hubbard	73/1488	Charles Hubbard, Father	17 October 1873	Revd. A. B. Todd
320	25 October 1873	John Liddell Marian Forrest	John Liddell Marion Forest 💍 1873/9196	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	32 21	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 1 year	The Residence of John Liddell	73/1490		25 October 1873	Revd. A. B. Todd
321	31 October 1873	John Henderson Elizabeth Smith	John Henderson Elizabeth Smith 💍 1873/9193	Bachelor Widow	Horsebreaker	23 29	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	The Residence of John Henderson	73/1489		31 October 1873	Revd. A. B. Todd
322	3 November 1873	Patrick Joyce Mary Joyce	Patrick Joyce Mary Joyce 💍 1873/9139	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Boarding House Keeper	26 26	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 15 months	St Patricks Church	73/1471		3 November 1873	Revd. J. Donovan
323	3 November 1873	Patrick Ryan Ellen Sherer	Patrick Ryan Ellen Sherer 💍 1873/9133	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 36	Oamaru Oamaru	10 months 3 years	St Patrick's Church	13/1469		3 November 1873	Revd. J. Donovan
324	3 November 1873	Richard Andrews Catherine Connell	Richard Andrews Catherine Connell 💍 1873/9136	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	26 26	Boundary Creek Oamaru	3 years 6 months	St Patricks Church	73/1470		3 November 1873	Revd. J. Donovan
325	17 November 1873	John Joseph Mouritz Helena Foster	John Joseph Mouritz Eleanor Forster 💍 1873/9202	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	9 months 5 months	The Residence of Philip James Ennis Mouritz at Oamaru	73/1492		1 December 1873	Revd. A. B. Todd
327	9 December 1873	John Meikle Eliza Jane Mouritz	John Meikle Eliza Jane Mauritz 💍 1873/9199	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	32 18	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 5 years	The Residence of Philip James Ennis Mouritz at Oamaru	73/1491	Philip James Ennis Mouritz Father	1 December 1873	Revd. A. B. Todd
328	4 December 1873	Alexander Matheson Ellen Morton	Alexander Mathieson Ellen Morton 💍 1873/9205	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet-maker Domestic Servant	29 28	Oamaru Oamaru	1/2 year 1 year	The Manse	73/1493		4 December 1873	Revd. 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).