Intentions to Marry, 1877

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840389, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 16 2025

Page 709

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 March 1877 Registrar W. G. Filleul

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
552	6 January 1877	John Kennedy Maria Hollingworth	John Kennedy Maria Hollingworth 💍 1877/553	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	25 23	Oamaru Oamaru	8 months 4 months	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages, Oamaru	77/465		6 January 1877	W. G. Filleul - Reg.
553	9 January 1877	Peter Birrell Christina Mitchell	Peter Birrell Christina Mitchell 💍 1877/546	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter House Servant	24 22	Oamaru Oamaru	9 months 14 days	The Residence of W. Townsend, Oamaru	77/454		9 January 1877	Rev. John Armitage
554	15 January 1877	Patrick McCaan Honora Fitzgerald	Patrick McCann Hanora Fitzgerald 💍 1877/554	Bachelor Spinster	Gold Miner House Servant	44 24	Maerewhenua Maerewhenua	6 years 4 months	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	77/464		15 January 1877	Rev. William Coleman
555	26 January 1877	George McPherson Margaret Jane Lapslie	George McPherson Margaret Jane Lapslie 💍 1877/548	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd House Servant	31 24	Omarama Oamaru	6 years 2 years	The Residence of W. Engel, Humber St., Oamaru	77/460		26 January 1877	Rev. Alexander B. Todd
556	29 January 1877	Alexander Christian Fife Jessie Neilson	Alexander Christian Keiller Fife Jessie Neilson 💍 1877/552	Bachelor Spinster	Accountant	37 29	Papakaio Papakaio	3 days 1 month	The Residence of W. Neilson, Papakaio	77/464		29 January 1877	Rev. John Steven
557	12 February 1877	John McBride Jessie Lindsay	John McBride Jessie Lindsay 💍 1877/549	Bachelor Spinster	Cabinet maker Domestic Servant	26 19	Oamaru Oamaru	18 months 2 years	The Manse, Oamaru	77/461	Andrew Lindsay, Father	12 February 1877	Rev. Alex. B. Todd
558	26 February 1877	Samuel Ernest Hubbard Fanny Bust	Samuel Ernest Hubbard Fanny Bust 💍 1877/547	Bachelor Spinster	Engineer	22 23	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 2 years	The Residence of R. D. Bust, Lees Street, Oamaru	77/458		26 February 1877	Rev. John Armitage
559	28 February 1877	William McGlusky Elizabeth Lance	William Affleck Elizabeth Shand 💍 1877/560 William Moulder Elizabeth Hardy 💍 1877/2471 William McLellan Elizabeth Brodie 💍 1877/533 William McKerras Elizabeth Whitten 💍 1877/233 William Alward Elizabeth McLenan 💍 1877/1563 William Boutcher Elizabeth Barber 💍 1877/505 William Cook Elizabeth Alexander 💍 1877/1832 William Thomas Jane Elizabeth Daniels 💍 1877/2022 William Flinn Elizabeth Trail 💍 1877/229 William Pollard Elizabeth Willett 💍 1877/237	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 16	Oamaru Oamaru	2 1/2 years 1 year	The Residence of Joseph McMullin, Severn Street, Oamaru	77/462	Joseph McMullin, Father	28 February 1877	Rev. Alex. B. Todd
560	19 March 1877	George Manley Alice O'Connor	George Manley Alice O'Connor 💍 1877/106	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	25 21	Waiareka Waiareka	6 months 7 months	Wesley Church, Oamaru	77/459		19 March 1877	Rev. 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 1899. More registers are being added almost every week.

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).