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 819

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 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
678	10 July 1878	John Edward Cox Ellen Murray	John Edward Cox Ellen Murray 💍 1878/1351	Bachelor Spinster	Cook Domestic Servant	29 22	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 12 months	The Manse, Oamaru	78/2178		10 July 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
679	16 July 1878	Hugh Stewart Esther Robinson	Hugh Stewart Esther Robinson 💍 1878/1353	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Domestic Servant	27 26	Oamaru Oamaru	6 weeks 3 years	The Manse, Oamaru	78/2178		16 July 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
680	1 August 1878	James Hay Grace Howarth Dickson	James Hay Grace Euart Dickson 💍 1878/1354	Bachelor Spinster	Mason	22 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 days	The Manse, Oamaru	78/2179		1 August 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
681	5 August 1878	Richard Andrews Margaret Jane McDonald	Richard Andrews Margaret Jane McDonald 💍 1878/2950	Widower Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	30 19	Oamaru Oamaru	8 years 5 months	The Residence of the Rev. William Coleman, Oamaru	78/2995	No one resident in Colony to give consent	5 August 1878	Rev. William Coleman
682	8 August 1878	George McDonald Jane Ann Ross	George McDonald Jane Ann Ross 💍 1878/1355	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer Domestic Servant	33 19	Otekaike Oamaru	18 months 2 years	The Residence of Mr Alexander Ross, Oamaru	78/2180	Alexander Ross, Father	8 August 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
683	8 August 1878	Robert John Keys Anna Deare	Robert John Keys Anna Deane 💍 1878/2216	Bachelor Spinster	Grocer	21	Oamaru Dunedin	3 years	The Residence of Rev. Mitchell, Albany Street, Dunedin	78/2220		8 August 1878	Rev. D. Stuart D.D.
684	13 August 1878	Henry Isaac Woodward Kate Ann Laidlaw	Henry Isaac Woodward Kate Ann Laidlaw 💍 1878/1356	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	23 21	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 14 days	The Manse, Oamaru	78/2181		13 August 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
685	20 August 1878	George Meldrum Margaret Meldrum	George Meldrum Margaret Meldrum 💍 1878/1357	Bachelor Spinster	Baker	22 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 5 months	The Residence of Mr Andrew Meldrum, Itchen Street, Oamaru	78/2182	Norman Meldrum, Father	20 August 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).