Intentions to Marry, 1875

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840387, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, May 16 2025.

This register is quite fragile and some of the pages are damaged or even missing.

Page 672

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1875

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
427	7 August 1875	Edward Richmond Eliza Staines	Edward Richmund Eliza Haines 💍 1875/1730	Bachelor Spinster	Plasterer Domestic Servant	34 21	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 3 years	The Residence of Mr. George Cameron in Ribble Street Oamaru	75/1985		7 August 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
428	11 August 1875	George Watson Margaret Ann Billingham	George Watson Margaret Ann Billingham 💍 1875/1731	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	23 17	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 15 years	The Residence of Mr. John Billingham in Oamaru	75/1990	John Billingham, father	11 August 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
429	18 August 1875	Edward Derrett Margaret Fraser	Edward Derritt Margaret Fraser 💍 1875/1734	Bachelor Spinster	Horse Shoer General Servant	21 20	Oamaru Oamaru	14 years 13 months	The Residence of Mr. John Fraser in Wharf Street Oamaru	75/1807	John Fraser, father	18 August 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
430	21 August 1875	Thomas Roseveare Fanny Brocome	Thomas Roseveare Fanny Crocome 💍 1875/1648	Bachelor Spinster	Store Keeper Domestic Servant	28 18	Teanaraki Teanaraki	18 months 3 months	Wesley Church Oamaru	75/1804	Mary Ann Brocome, Mother	20 August 1875	Revd. John Armitage
431	21 August 1875	Daniel Brewer Margaret Ellen Nicholson	Daniel Brewer Margaret Ellen Nicholson 💍 1875/1733	Bachelor Spinster	Boatman Dress maker	23 25	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 3 months	The Residence of Mr. William Robb Cape Farm Oamaru	75/1808		21 August 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
432	23 August 1875	William Hall Catherine Crossan	William Hall Catherine Crossen 💍 1875/1737 William Hall Mary Martin 💍 1875/1011	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	22 26	Corriedale Oamaru	6 months 12 months	St. Patricks Church Oamaru	75/1804		23 August 1875	Revd. Jeremiah Donovan
433	27 August 1875	John Steven Marion Kerr	John Steven Marion Kerr 💍 1875/1656	Bachelor Spinster	Minister	31 32	Papakaio Port Molyneux	3 weeks	Riverside Clutha	75/1812		27 August 1875	Revd. John M. Allan
434	27 August 1875	Frederick Hill Annie McKenzie	Frederick Hill Annie McKenzie 💍 1875/1483	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Domestic Servant	25 21	Oamaru Oamaru	4 months 10 months	The office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	75/1633		27 August 1875	W. G. Filleul, Registrar

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).