Intentions to Marry, 1876

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840388, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Alexandra at Archives NZ Wellington, January 31 2025

A few of the pages are missing.

Page 737

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1876

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
517	3 July 1876	Frederick Goold Margaret Wallace Wilson	Frederick Goold Margaret Wallace Wilson 💍 1876/1999	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Machinist	23 23	Oamaru Oamaru	12 months 5 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	76/2061		3 July 1876	W.S. Filleul, Registrar
518	7 July 1876	Alexander Parker Elizabeth Veitch	Alexander Parker Elizabeth Veitch 💍 1876/2000	Bachelor Widow	Mason	42 29	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 9 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	76/2062		7 July 1876	W.S. Filleul, Registrar
519	7 July 1876	Thomas Hannon Margaret Hession	Thomas Hannon Margaret Hessian 💍 1876/1998	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	26 25	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 5 years	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	76/2060		7 July 1876	Revd. Jeremiah Donovan, [illegible]
520	13 July 1876	Thomas Monteath Jane Knight	Thomas Montiath Jane Knight 💍 1876/2003	Bachelor Spinster	Teacher	22 20	Maerewhenua Oamaru	2.5 years 2 years	St Luke's Church, Oamaru		Richard Knight, Father	18 July 1876	Revd. Algernon Gifford
521	15 July 1876	William Grant Louisa Abbott	William Grant Louisa Abbott 💍 1876/2014	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	24 16	Oamaru Oamaru	5 months 23 months	Residence of Henry Abbott, Trent Street, Oamaru	76/2052	Henry Abbott, Father	15 July 1876	Revd. A.B. Todd
522	22 July 1876	John Jimlick Eliza Lewis	John Timlick Eliza Lewis 💍 1876/2008	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener	25 18	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 3 years	The Residence of Charles Lewis, Trent Street, Oamaru	76/2069	Charles Lewis, Father	22 July 1876	Revd. John Armitage
523	25 July 1876	Jeremiah O'Keefe Mary Ann O'Connor	Jeremiah O'Keeffe Mary Ann O'Connor 💍 1876/2001	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	21 25	Oamaru Oamaru	12 months 2 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	76/2063		1 August 1876	W.S. Filleul, Registrar
524	31 July 1876	Duncan McDougall Maud Benson	Duncan McDugall Maud Benson 💍 1876/2015	Bachelor Spinster	Baker Milliner	24 24	Oamaru Oamaru	4 months 1 year	The Residence of Ritchie Young, Greta Street, Oamaru	76/2053		31 July 1876	Revd. A.B. Todd
525	4 August 1876	Daniel Kermode Catherine McQuade	Daniel Kermode Catherine McQuade 💍 1876/2002	Bachelor Spinster	Miner	35 16	Maerewhenua Maerewhenua	12 months 7 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	76/2064	James McQuade, Father	4 August 1876	W.S. 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).