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 675

District of Quarter ending 31 December 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
440	2 October 1875	John Herin Bridget McEarthy	John Kerin Bridget McCarthy 💍 1875/2491 John OBrien Bridget Tuohy 💍 1875/2701 John Hoskin Bridget Delia Conroy 💍 1875/1940	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	34 27	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 2 months	St. Patrick's Church	75/2654		2 October 1875	Revd. Patrick O'Leary
441	12 October 1875	Robert Polson Jane Ann Kemp	Robert Polson Jane Ann Kemp Lawrence 💍 1875/2294	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer	29 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 9 years	The Residence of Mr. John Laurance in Trent Street, Oamaru	75/2476	John Laurance, Father	12 October 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
442	16 October 1875	James Wilson Elizabeth Hamilton	James Wilson Elizabeth Hamilton 💍 1875/2302	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier Dressmaker	28 23	Papakaio Oamaru	8 years 6 years	The Residence of Mr. James Hamilton in Reed Street, Oamaru	75/2479		16 October 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
443	18 October 1875	Alexander Schwietters Isabella Fawcett	Alexander Schwieters Isabella Fawcett 💍 1875/2289	Bachelor Spinster	Lawyer	39 22	Reidston Oamaru	5 weeks 8 months	The Residence of Mr. John Thompson in Ribble Street, Oamaru	75/2471		18 October 1875	Revd. John Armitage
444	18 October 1875	Colin McLachlan Ann Jane Shuldrow	Colin McLachlan Ann Jane Muldrow 💍 1875/2714	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	23 21	Oamaru Kakani	2 years 3 days	The Residence of Mr. Shuldrow at Kakani	75/2916		18 October 1875	Revd. John Riley
445	18 October 1875	Stewart Richmond Margaret Jane Green	Stewart Richmond Margaret Jane Grace 💍 1875/2292	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	25 19	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 3 months	St. Luke's Church	75/2494	Rachel Green, Mother	18 October 1875	Revd. Algernon Gifford
446	19 October 1875	Richard Burke Letitia Reid	Richard Burke Letitia Reid 💍 1875/2313	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Boarding-house Keeper	40 36	Oamaru Oamaru	2 months 2 years	The Residence of Letitia Reid in Thames Street, Oamaru	75/2498		19 October 1875	Revd. A. B. Todd
447	25 October 1875	John Mayhew Ellen Ker Gullam	John Mayhew Ellen Ker Gullan 💍 1875/2293	Bachelor Widow	Labourer Domestic Servant	27 28	Reidston Reidston	2 1/2 years 3 weeks	St. Luke's Church	75/2495		25 October 1875	Revd. Algernon Gifford
448	28 October 1875	John Munro Agnes Carr	John Munro Agnes Carr 💍 1875/2290	Bachelor Spinster	Mason Dressmaker	22 18	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 4 years	The Residence of Mr. Alexander Carr in Tyne Street, Oamaru	75/2492	Alexander Carr, Father	28 October 1875	Revd. John Armitage

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).