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 711

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1877 Registrar W. & Fulleul

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
562	06 April 1877	Andrew Gray Lydia Newton Arnold	Andrew Gray Lydia Newton Arnold 💍 1877/1173	Widower Spinster	Carrier Housekeeper	32 22	Oamaru Oamaru	15 years 2 years	The Residence of ew Andrew Gray	77/1081		06 April 1877	Rev A. B. Todd
563	06 April 1877	James Parker Jane Say	James Parker Jane Say 💍 1877/2718	Bachelor Widow	Farmer	42 33	Papakaio Papakaio	10 years 10 years	The Residence of the Rev. William	77/2/24		06 April 1877	Rev W Coleman
564	07 April 1877	John Henderson Agnes Johnston White	John Henderson Agnes Johnston White 💍 1877/1161	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith	22 19	Otegapara Awamoko	3 years 9 years	The Residence of John Johnston	77/1082	Declaration made that no person in Colony having authority to give consent	07 April 1877	Rev. John Steven
565	11 April 1877	Archibald Nicol Hislop Annie Paton	Archibald Nicol Hislop Annie Paton 💍 1877/1160	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper Farm Servant	28 19	Oamaru Papakaio	5 days 6 years	The Residence of John Paton	77/1081	Jane Paton mother	12 April 1877	Revd John Steven
566	11 April 1877	William Angelo Jones Julia Mondy		Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 3 weeks	Wesley Church			11 April 1877	Revd John Armitage
567	12 April 1877	Henry Ring Jessie Purchas	Henry King Jessie Porteous 💍 1877/1174 Henry Hewitt Jessie Duncan 💍 1878/538	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	22 21	Oamaru Kakanui North	4 years 18 months	The Residence of W Purchas	77/1072		12 April 1877	Rev A. B. Todd
568	14 April 1877	Michael Hurley Margaret Jane Forsyth	Michael Hurley Martha Jane Forsyth 💍 1877/1166	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	28 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 1 week	St Luke's Church	77/1088		14 April 1877	Rev Algernon Gifford
569	23 April 1877	Alexander Scott Henderson Ellen Cagney	Alexander Scott Henderson Ellen Cagney 💍 1877/1164	Bachelor Spinster	Wood Scourer Domestic Servant	29 18	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 2 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages	77/1086	Declaration made that no person in Colony having authority to give consent	23 April 1877	William J. Filleul Registrar
570	24 April 1877	James Newsome Flora McClellan	James Newsome Flora McNellan 💍 1877/3108	Bachelor Spinster	Carrier	36 35	Duntroon Duntroon	4 years 2 years	The Residence of James Parkes Beulomond	77/1083		24 April 1877	Rev John Steven

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).