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 675

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
358	6 July 1874	William Smith Mary Williams	William Smith Mary Williams 💍 1874/9544	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Domestic Servant	21 22	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 6 weeks	The Manse Oamaru	74/1251		6 July 1874	Revd. A.B. Todd
359	15 July 1874	Robert Caldwell Lindsay Annie McKenzie Begbie	Robert C Lindsay Annie M Begbie 💍 1874/9550	Bachelor Spinster	Draper Milliner	33 21	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 1 year	The residence of Mrs Luarrie Reed Street Oamaru	74/1253		15 July 1874	Revd. A.B. Todd
360	15 July 1874	Joseph Perriman Janie McLeod	Joseph Perrieman Jessie McLeod 💍 1874/9547	Bachelor Spinster	Upholsterer Servant	29 26	Oamaru Oamaru	15 months 9 months	The residence of Ch Ch Intosh - Wharf Street - Oamaru	1252		15 July 1874	Revd. A.B. Todd
361	16 July 1874	Frederick Dunn Holdswith Jane Ethel Rule	Frederick Dun Holdsworth Jane Ethel Rule 💍 1874/13795	Bachelor Spinster	Telegraphist None	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 11 years	The residence of Mr. Rule - Tyne Street - Oamaru	2712		16 July 1874	Revd. A. Gifford
362	30 July 1874	John Watson Ellen Margaret Little	John Watson Ellen M B Little 💍 1874/9553	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd	25 17	Clifton Falls Awamoko	5 years 1 year	The house Oamaru	1254	Henry Little, Father	30 July 1874	Revd. A.B. Todd
363	1st August 1874	Charles Williams Emily Raymond	Charles Williams Emily Raymond 💍 1874/13798	Bachelor Widow	Boatman Housemaid	29 30	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	St Lukes Church - Oamaru	2713		1st August 1874	Revd. A. Gifford
364	3rd August 1874	Francis Whitehead Fanny Goodall	Frances Mitchell Fanny Goodall 💍 1874/13318	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	31 17	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 1 year	The residence of Mr. James Stevenson - Oamaru			Not yet issued
365	3rd August 1874	William Walker Mary Draper	William Walker Mary Draper 💍 1874/9559	Bachelor Spinster	Bootmaker Domestic Servant	28 28	Maheno Oamaru	18 months 1 year	The residence of Mr. Robert Martin - at Oamaru	1256		3rd August 1874	Revd. A.B. Todd
366	11 August 1874	Thomas Syrett Hardy Sarah Petters	Thomas Syrett Hardy Sarah Preston 💍 1874/13801	Bachelor Spinster	Civil Engineer	30 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 28 days	St Lukes' Church - Oamaru	2714		11th August 1874	Revd. A. Gifford
367	22nd August 1874	John Clegg Ellen Allan	John Clegg Ellen Allan 💍 1874/10780	Widower Spinster	Carpenter	28 19	Oamaru Oamaru	7 years 6 years	The Residence of Mr. John Clegg - at Oamaru	1672	Walter Allan - Father	22nd August 1874	Rev'd. F. Dewsbury

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).