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 673

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Apr - Jun

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
343	11 April 1874	John McLew Grace Brown	John McLew Grace Brown 💍 1874/9067	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	29 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	74/1087		12 April 1874	William Gabriel Filleul Registrar
344	6 April 1874	Charles Bond Maggie Shives	Charles Bond Maggie Shivas 💍 1874/8548	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	21 22	Oamaru Oamaru	12 months 10 days	The Manse Oamaru	74/914		6 June 1874	Alexander Bruce Todd
345	14 April 1874	Benjamin James Bellies Mary Berry	Benjamin James Collins Mary Berry 💍 1874/7030	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	34 35	Oamaru Oamaru	15 years 5 years	St Patrick's Chapel Oamaru	74/388		14 April 1874	Jeremiah Donovan
346	15 April 1874	Robert Gunion Emily Jamieson	Robert Gunion Emily Jamieson 💍 1874/8968	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	35 20	Omarama Omarama	3 days 2 years	The Residence of Mr Duncan Sutherland at Omarama	73/1054	Declaration made that no person in the Colony has authority to give consent	15 April 1874	James Baird
347	8 May 1874	Alexander McDonald Georgiana Pringle	Alexander McDonald Georgina Pringle 💍 1874/8551	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	32 19	Ardgowan Oamaru	8 years 15 years	The Oamaru Hotel - Oamaru	74/9	Declaration made that no person in Otago has authority to give consent	8 May 1874	Alexander Bruce Todd
348	14 May 1874	John Henderson Margaret Dixon	John Henderson Margaret Dixon 💍 1874/8554	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer Domestic Servant	25 24	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 2 years	The Residence of Mr. John Henderson at Oamaru	74/916		14 May 1874	Alexander Bruce Todd
349	26 May 1874	Arthur Hay Maude Nellie Mathilde Fenwick	Arthur Hay Maude Melior Matilda Fenwick 💍 1874/9235	Bachelor Spinster	Commission Agent	36 22	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 3 years	St Luke's Church Oamaru	74/114		10 June 1874	Algernon Gifford
350	26 May 1874	Thomas Patterson Amelia Bruce	Thomas Paterson Amelia Chase 💍 1874/8557	Bachelor Spinster	Express Driver	36 40	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 3 months	The Residence of Mr. Thomas Patterson at Oamaru	74/917		26 May 1874	Alexander Bruce Todd
351	1st June 1874	Joseph Speirs Eliza Ladd	Joseph Spiers Eliza Ladd 💍 1874/8578	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Cook	32 34	Taipo Hill Taipo Hill	8 months 11 months	Mr John Lees' Residence at Takarangi	74/924		12 June 1874	John Kyley

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).