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 677

District of Oamaru Quarter ending Oct - Dec

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
378	9 October 1874	Bernard Magee Catherine Dillon	Bernard Magee Catherine Dillon 💍 1874/13555	Bachelor Spinster	Hotel Manager Domestic Servant	30 22	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 5 years	St Patricks Church, Oamaru	2628		9 October 1874	Rev. Jeremiah Donovan
379	26 October 1874	John Edward Barnard Caroline Herbert	John Edward Barnard Caroline Herbert 💍 1874/12661	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Dressmaker	21 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 weeks 3 weeks	The House, Oamaru	2323	Declaration made that no person in Colony has authority to give consent	26 October 1874	Rev. A. B. Todd
380	3 November 1874	Thomas Nicholas Cooper Ann Wilson	Thomas Nicholas Corper Ann Wilson 💍 1874/12649	Bachelor Widow	Miner	45 36	Mawhera Quay Mawhera Quay	3 years 2 1/2 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages - Oamaru	2319		3 November 1874	W. G. Killeul, Registrar
381	6 November 1874	Albert Townsend Flora Clark	Albert Townsend Flora Clark 💍 1874/12658	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	18 months 12 months	Mr John Drummond's Residence, Hope Farm - Oamaru	2322		6 November 1874	Rev. A. B. Todd
382	10 November 1874	John Weller Ann Milne	John Weller Ann Milne 💍 1874/12652	Bachelor Spinster	Joiner	25 18	Oamaru Oamaru	7 months 2 years	The Residence of Mr Joseph Farmer in Boguet Street - Oamaru	2320	John Robert Milne, Father	10 November 1874	Rev. A. B. Todd
383	18 November 1874	Francis William Ogilvie Grant Anne Trevor Corry Evans	Francis William Ogilvie Grant Anne Trevor Corry Evans 💍 1874/13816	Bachelor Spinster	Gentleman	27 23	Waiareka Waiareka	4 years 6 years	Major Evans' Private Chapel at Cloon Gavin Waiareka	74/2719		18 November 1874	Rev. Algernon Gifford
384	25 November 1874	John Kelso Ferguson Margaret Proudfoot	John Kelso Ferguson Margaret Proudfoot 💍 1875/606	Widower Spinster	Tailor General Servant	31 21	Oamaru Oamaru	15 months 3 years	The Residence of the Reverend Frederik Dewsbury - Oamaru	1730		25 November 1874	Rev. Frederick Dewsbury
385	30 November 1874	Lewis Gordon Fenwick Christina Todd Cameron	Lewis Gordon Fenwick Christiana Todd Cameron 💍 1874/13813	Bachelor Spinster	Station Manager	31 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 4 years	St Lukes Church Oamaru	2718		30 November 1874	Rev. Algernon Gifford

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).