Intentions to Marry, 1878

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840390, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, March 5 2025

Page 0815

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 June 1878

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
653	2 April 1878	John Gifford Annie Moncrieff Evans	John Gifford Annie Moncrieffe Evans 💍 1878/1349	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	37 23	Brooklet Brooklet	12 years 15 months	St Lukes Church Oamaru	78/145		2 April 1878	Rev. Algernon Gifford
654	3 April 1878	George Parker Short Susan Sawle	George Parker Short Susan Sawle 💍 1878/1674	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Domestic Servant	30 19	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 4 months	The residence of Mr. Sween Sawle in Eden Street, Oamaru	78/1574		3 April 1878	Rev. John Armitage, Wes
655	4 April 1878	Douglas Hanning Agnes Meikle	Douglas Hanning Agnes Meikle 💍 1878/1514	Bachelor Spinster	Master Mariner Dressmaker	26 20	Kakanui North Kakanui North	3 days 12 months	The Manse Oamaru	78/1377	James Meikle, Father	4 April 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
656	4 April 1878	James Reid Eliza Cox	James Reid Eliza Cox 💍 1878/1502	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Domestic Servant	26 23	Maheno Maheno	2 years 3 years	The residence of Mr. Edward Lees at Maheno	78/1389		4 April 1878	Rev. James Cameron, Pres
657	9 April 1878	Henry Lammas Sarah Harrison	Henry Lammas Sarah Harrison 💍 1878/1348	Widower Widow	Gardener	30 29	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 11 years	St Lukes Church Oamaru	78/2144		9 April 1878	Rev. Algernon Gifford
658	12 April 1878	Thomas Wildish Elizabeth Ann Robinson	Thomas Wildish Elizabeth Ann Robinson 💍 1878/1498 John Thomas Squire Elizabeth Robinson 💍 1878/2173	Widower Widow	Laborer	41 35	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 2 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	78/1385		12 April 1878	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
659	16 April 1878	Matthew Hogan Elizabeth Readman	Mathew Hogan Elizabeth Readman 💍 1878/2968	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	22 16	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 2 years	The residence of the Rev. William Coleman, Oamaru	78/2989	George Readman, Father	16 April 1878	Rev. William Coleman
660	18 April 1878	Robert Peattie Elizabeth Hedley	Robert Peattie Elizabeth Hedley 💍 1878/1516	Widower Spinster	Schoolmaster	38 30	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 3 years	The Residence of Mr. Allen Hedley at Oamaru	78/1379		18 April 1878	Rev. 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 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).