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 734

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 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
500	24 April 1876	Patrick Menchen Mary Green	Patrick Menchan Mary Green 💍 1876/975 James Edge Mary Green 💍 1876/771	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Housemaid	45 30	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 7 years	St Patricks Church Oamaru	76/1024		24 April 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan Rly
501	24 April 1876	George Davidson Margaret Ann Berenger	George Davidson Margaret Ann Beranger 💍 1876/958	Widower Spinster	Mason	29 23	Oamaru Oamaru	1 1/2 years 1 year	The Residence of Mr John Berenger in Eden Street Oamaru	76/1031		24 April 1876	Revd John Armitage Wes
502	6 May 1876	Charles Hatter Janet Messer	Charles Hatter Janet Messer 💍 1876/3130	Bachelor Widow	Laborer	32 34	Kakanui Kakanui	2 years 15 weeks	the residence of Mr Charles Hatter at Kakanui	76/1183		6 May 1876	Revd John Ryley CofE
503	9 May 1876	Michael Folay Mary Brennan	Michael Foley Mary Brennan 💍 1876/976	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	45 30	Maerewhenua Kohurau	18 months 6 months	St Patricks Church Oamaru	76/1025		9 May 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan Rly
504	10 May 1876	Francis Robert McCluskey Margaret Jane Neilly	Francis Robert McClaskey Margaret Jane Riely 💍 1876/964	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Machinist	21 21	Oamaru Oamaru	13 months 13 months	St Patricks Church Oamaru	Cancelled see R.G. 76/481		10 May 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan Rly
505	13 May 1876	James Gray Helen Sproul	James Gray Helen Sproul 💍 1876/966	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Nursemaid	26 18	Omarama Omarama	2 years 6 months	The Residence of Mr John Gray in Hill Street Oamaru	76/1038	no one in the Colony having authority to give consent	13 May 1876	Revd A. B. Todd CofE
506	20 May 1876	Daniel Hart Leah Hurrell	Daniel Hart Leah Hurrell 💍 1876/955	Bachelor Spinster	Gardener Nursemaid	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages Oamaru	76/1028		20 May 1876	W. G. Filleul (Registrar)
507	22 May 1876	Thomas Meredith Smith Martha Annie Honour	Thomas Meredith Smith Martha Annie Honour 💍 1876/1592	Bachelor Spinster	Sergeant of Police	40 26	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 10 years	St Lukes Church Oamaru	76/1588		22 May 1876	Revd Algernon Gifford CofE

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).