Intentions to Marry, 1874

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840386, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Page 671

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Jan - Mar

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
330	2 January 1874	Charles Transfield Margaret Neylon	Charles Mansfield Margaret Neylon 💍 1874/7057	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman	28 23	Waiareka Oamaru	4 years 2 years	St Patrick's Chapel, Oamaru	74/397		2 January 1874	Rev. Jeremiah Donovan
331	5 January 1874	John Selman Grace Brown	John Selmon Grace Brown 💍 1874/7039	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	21 24	Oamaru Oamaru	3 weeks 3 months	The Residence of John Henderson, Oamaru	74/391		5 January 1874	Rev. A.B. Todd
332	5 January 1874	George Ward Draper Sarah Costello	George Ward Draper Sarah Costello 💍 1874/7024	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Domestic Servant	29 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 months 6 months	St Patrick's Chapel, Oamaru	74/386	Declaration made that there is no person in the Colony to give consent	5 January 1874	Rev. Jeremiah Donovan
333	14 January 1874	Thomas John Booker Sarah Graham	Thomas John Cooper Sarah Graham 💍 1874/7033	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	38 32	Macetown Macetown	6 years 6 years	Office of Reg. of Marriages, Oamaru	74/389		14 January 1874	W.G. Filleul, Registrar of Marriages
334	28 January 1874	William Robinson Catherine Horogan	William Robinson Catherine Horrigan 💍 1874/7027	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	39 27	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 3 months	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	74/387		28 January 1874	Rev. Jeremiah Donovan
335	4 February 1874	Robert McJennett Georgiana Johanna Hendry	Robert McGennett Georgina Johanna Hendry 💍 1874/7042	Bachelor Spinster	Butcher Domestic Servant	28 24	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 7 years	Mr William McJennett's Residence, Oamaru	74/392		4 February 1874	Rev. A.B. Todd
336	9 February 1874	James King Christina Munro McRay	James King Christina Munro McKay 💍 1874/7063	Bachelor Spinster	Stonemason Dressmaker	23 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 3 years	The Residence of Mr & Mrs Ray, Hampden	See 74/400 Duplicate		9 February 1874	Rev. James Band
337	16 February 1874	George Pratt Amelia Dysdale	George Pratt Amelia Drysdale 💍 1874/7048	Bachelor Spinster	Road Contractor	34 21	Oamaru Oamaru	2 1/2 years 3 years	The Residence of W Galbraith Oamaru	74/394		16 February 1874	Rev. A.B. Todd
338	18 February 1874	Alexander Harper Annie Prentice	Alexander Harper Annie Prentice 💍 1874/7045	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	27 21	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 3 months	The Manse, Oamaru	74/393		18 February 1874	Rev. A.B. Todd
339	21 February 1874	William Smith Robina Henray	William Smith Robina Henray 💍 1874/7036	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	27 28	Waiarika Waiarika	5 weeks 4 weeks	The Office of the Reg. of Marriages, Oamaru	74/390		21 February 1874	W.G. Filleul, Registrar of Marriages

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).