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 730

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 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
474	18 February 1876	James Scobbie Sarah Smith	James Scobbie Sarah Smith 💍 1876/637	Widower Widow	Gas Stoker	33 33	Oamaru Oamaru	10 weeks 4 days	The Residence of the Reverend, John Armitage - Oamaru	76/532		18 February 1876	Revd John Armitage
475	22 February 1876	John Cagney Ann O'Brien	John Cagney Anne O'Brien 💍 1876/609	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer Dressmaker	33 25	Oamaru Oamaru	15 months 6 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	76/533		22 February 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan
476	24 February 1876	Thomas Smith Bridget Callaghan	Thomas Smith Bridget Callaghan 💍 1876/627	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer Domestic Servant	21 21	Pukeuri Point Pukeuri Point	4 years 2 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	76/534		24 February 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan
477	28 February 1876	James Barclay Janet Henderson	James Stephens Janet Henderson 💍 1876/2869	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter Domestic Servant	34 18	Oamaru Oamaru	14 years 2 years	The Residence of William Henderson in Coquet Street, Oamaru	76/527	James Henderson, Father	29 February 1876	Revd A. B. Todd
478	1 March 1876	George Gordon Mary Ann Orr	George Gordon Mary Ann Orr 💍 1876/643	Bachelor Spinster	Waggoner Domestic Servant	28 22	Makareao North Oamaru	5 years 12 months	The Manse Oamaru	76/528		1 March 1876	Revd A. B. Todd
479	7 March 1876	Timothy Purcell Mary Stone	Timothy Purcell Mary Stone 💍 1876/628	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 24	Oamaru Main South Road near Oamaru	4 weeks 1 year	St Patrick's Church, Oamaru	76/535		7 March 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan
480	14 March 1876	Lawrence Edward Reade Margaret Hannah Booth	Lawrence Edward Reade Margaret Hannah Booth 💍 1876/668	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	29 25	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 7 years	St Luke's Church Oamaru	76/538		14 March 1876	Revd Algernon Gifford
481	16 March 1876	Alexander Clydesdale Margaretta Ray Young	Alexander Clydesdale Margaretta Hay Young 💍 1876/644	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	26 20	Oamaru Oamaru	9 years 11 years	The Residence of Mr Duncan Young in Tees Street, Oamaru	76/529	Duncan Young, Father	16 March 1876	Revd A. B. Todd
482	18 March 1876	Michael Quiddy Kate Sheehan	Michael Smiddy Kate Sheahan 💍 1876/629	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	20 18	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 2 years	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	76/539	Declaration made that there is no person in the Colony to give consent to either	18 March 1876	Revd Jeremiah Donovan
483	20 March 1876	William Dawson Mary McKenzie	John William Jackson Helen McKenzie 💍 1876/81	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Housekeeper	33 36	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 6 months	The Residence of Mr Johnston Driguid in Ouse Street, Oamaru	76/532		20 March 1876	Revd A. B. Todd

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).