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 824

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
704	24 October 1878	James Campbell Mary McLean	James Campbell Mary McKeown 💍 1878/2991 James Campbell Marion Reid 💍 1878/2230	Bachelor Spinster	Ploughman Servant	22 years 19	Oamaru Oamaru	9 days 4 weeks	The Manse Oamaru	78/3012	No person in the Colony to give consent	24 October 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
705	26 October 1878	John Cleary Margaret Fitzgerald	John Cleary Margaret Fitzgerald 💍 1878/2956 Michael Flannagan Margaret Fitzgerald 💍 1878/1532	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Servant	22 years 20 years	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 12 months	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	78/3000	No person in the Colony to give consent	26 October 1878	Rev. D. Coleman
706	7 November 1878	Herbert Honour Grace Garrow	Herbert Honour Grace Garrow 💍 1878/2960	Bachelor Spinster	Farmer	34 years 21 years	Hampden, Oamaru Oamaru	15 years 12 months	St Luke's Church Oamaru	[illegible]		7 November 1878	Rev. Algernon Gifford
707	12 November 1878	David Jarvie Flora Mclay	David Ganie Flora McKay 💍 1878/2992	Bachelor Spinster	Express-driver Domestic Servant	30 years 22 years	Oamaru Oamaru	6 years 4 years	The Manse Oamaru	78/3013		12 November 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
708	12 November 1878	Charles Hudson Gilmore Ruth Sharp Begbie	Charles Hudson Gilmore Ruth Sharp Begbie 💍 1878/2993	Bachelor Spinster	Stationer	23 years 22 years	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 5 years	The residence of R. & R. Lindsay - Humber Street - Oamaru	78/3014		12 November 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
709	12 November 1878	William Yoxley Kempton Louisa Harriett Hudson	William Fossey Kempton Louisa Harriet Hudson 💍 1878/2961	Bachelor Spinster	Storeman	27 years 22 years	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 3 months	St Luke's Church Oamaru	78/3005		12 November 1878	Rev. Algernon Gifford
710	12 November 1878	Cornelius Alfred Reeves Margaret Sayers	Cornelius Alfred Reeves Margaret Sagers 💍 1878/2970	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Driver	26 years 21 years	Oamaru Oamaru	4 years 3 1/2 years	The Manse Oamaru	78/3015		12 November 1878	Rev. A. B. Todd
711	16 November 1878	John Moriarty Abina Lowey	John Moriarty Abina Doosey 💍 1878/2957	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	20 21	Oamaru Oamaru	10 months 6 weeks	St Patrick's Church Oamaru	78/3001	No person in the Colony to give consent	16 November 1878	Rev. D. Coleman

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).