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 715

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1877 Registrar A. G. Gellesel

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
586	06 July 1877	Michael O'Connor Theresa Dempsey	Michael OConnor Theresa Dempsey 💍 1877/2747	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	33 24	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 7 years	St Pauls Church	77/2732		06 July 1877	Rev. William Coleman
587	10 July 1877	Francis John Contan Mary Taylor	Francis John Conlan Mary Taylor 💍 1877/2746	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	28 25	Oamaru Oamaru	4 Months 2 years	St Patricks Church	77/2731		10 July 1877	Rev. William Coleman
588	16 July 1877	Wm Houriman Adams Ruth Helena Muldrew	John Sternman Adams Ruth Helena Muldrew 💍 1877/1936	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	33 19	Kakanui North Kakanui North	8 years 1 year	Office of Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	77/1869	James Muldrew Father	16 July 1877	Register of Marriage at Oamaru
589	03 August 1877	Fred. Wansbrough Elizabeth Mary Beeson	Fred Wansbrough Elizabeth Mary Brown Paterson 💍 1877/1939	Bachelor Spinster	Compositor	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	10 years 9 years	Residence of Mr Smith	77/1842		05 August 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
590	09 August 1877	Alexander Bennett Janet Sinclair	Alexander Bennett Janet Tinline 💍 1877/1940	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	26 31	Oamaru Oamaru	3½ years 3½ years	Residence of Mr Sinclair	77/1843		09 August 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
591	13 August 1877	David Boyes Mary Ann McIntosh	David Boyes Mary McIntosh 💍 1877/1917	Bachelor Spinster	Plumber	22 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 8 months	Residence of Mr McIntosh	77/1844		13 August 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
592	14 August 1877	David Chalmers Isabella Hephen	David Chalmers Isabella Stephen 💍 1877/1922	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver Domestic Servant	35 29	Oamaru Papakaio	10 years 2 years	Residence of Mr Stephen	77/1849		14 August 1877	Rev. John Steven
593	17 August 1877	John Crawford Ellen Connors	John Crawford Ellen Connors 💍 1877/1937	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	38 27	Jernerati Oamaru	3½ years 12 months	Office of Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	77/1840		17 August 1877	Register of Marriages at Oamaru
594	18 August 1877	Joseph Miams Elizabeth Phoebe Bicknell	Joseph Mirams Elizabeth Phoebe Bicknell 💍 1877/1920	Bachelor Spinster	Printer & Writer	26 20	Oamaru Oamaru	2½ years 15 years	St Paul's Church	77/1841	Frederick Bicknell Father	18 August 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
595	03 September 1877	George Barr Chapman Elizabeth Everett	George Carr Chapman Elizabeth Everitt 💍 1877/1919	Bachelor Spinster	Clerk	34 22	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 18 years	Residence of Mr Chapman	77/1846		03 September 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
596	04 September 1877	Charles Simeon Jones Christina Somers	Charles Simeon Jones Caroline Somers 💍 1877/1918	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman & Carter Cook	28 23	Oamaru Oamaru	15 months 8 months	The Manse	77/1845		04 September 1877	Rev. A. B. Todd
597	07 September 1877	Robert Scott Margaret McMillan	Robert Scott Margaret McMillan 💍 1877/1923	Bachelor Spinster	Shepherd Domestic Servant	28 21	Kohuran Kohuran	2 years 2 years	Residence of Mr Kettle	77/1880		07 September 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).