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 0825

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 31 December 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
712	25 November 1878	Robert Full Agnes Henrietta Smill	Robert Hill Agnes Henrietta Quill 💍 1878/2980	Bachelor Spinster	Publican	30 28	Oamaru Oamaru	4 days 7 days	The office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	78/3507		25 November 1878	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
713	27 November 1878	Thomas Common Elizabeth Martyre	Thomas Common Elizabeth Martyn 💍 1878/2975	Bachelor Spinster	Storekeeper	31 30	Teaneraki Teaneraki	4 years 4 weeks	Wesley Church Oamaru	78/3020		27 November 1878	Revd. Henry Dewsbury
714	20 December 1878	Joseph William Lewis Mary Ann Kaser		Bachelor Spinster	Saddler	21 years 18	Oamaru Dunedin	4 days	In the Presbyterian Church, Dunedin			20 December 1878	Revd. Dr. Stewart
715	23 December 1878	John Jackman Marjory Love Spalding	John Jackman Marjory Love Spalding 💍 1878/2976	Bachelor Spinster	Groom Dressmaker	21 19	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 2 years	Wesley Church Oamaru	78/3021	David Spalding, Father	23 December 1878	Revd. Henry Dewsbury
716	24 December 1878	William Henry Pile Joan Innes	William Henry Pile Jean Inner 💍 1878/2971	Bachelor Spinster	Carter Cook	24 26	Oamaru Oamaru	9 months 12 months	The Manse Oamaru	78/3016		24 December 1878	Revd. A. B. Todd
717	24 December 1878	John Stewart Matilda Annie Ada Clarke	John Stewart Matilda Annie Ada Clark 💍 1879/697	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Servant	27 20	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 11 years	The residence of Mrs John Leslie in Ardlie Street, Oamaru	78/506	Eliza Jane Clarke, Mother	24 December 1878	Revd. A. B. Todd
718	27 December 1878	Henry Bynell Janet McArter Lemnie	Henry Bignell Janet McArthur Lennie 💍 1878/2972	Bachelor Spinster	Carpenter	23 years 19 years	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 4 years	At the residence of Mrs G. Lemnie - Town Belt South - Oamaru	78/3017	George Lemnie, Father	27 December 1878	Revd. A. B. Todd
719	28 December 1878	Herbert John Webb Sarah McLean	Herbert John Webb Sarah McCaw 💍 1878/2973	Bachelor Spinster	Solicitor	28 29	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 18 months	The residence of Mrs Alexander McLean in Reed Street - Oamaru	78/3018		28 December 1878	Revd. 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).