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 820

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
686	23 August 1878	Frederick Drew Jane McArtney	Frederick Drew Jane McArtney 💍 1878/1350	Bachelor Spinster	Farm Labourer	23 24	Papakaio Papakaio	3 years 3 years	The residence of Mr. Robert Stalker at Papakaio	78/12114		23 August 1878	Revd. John Steven, C.S.
687	24 August 1878	James Kelly Kate Dowling	James Kelly Kate Dowling 💍 1878/2951	Bachelor Spinster	Labourer Domestic Servant	26 25	Oamaru Oamaru	1 1/2 year 3 years	St. Patrick's Church, Oamaru	78/12996		24 August 1878	Revd. William Coleman, R.C.
688	2 September 1878	Thomas Davidson Elizabeth Bruce	Thomas Davidson Elizabeth Bruce 💍 1878/1358	Bachelor Spinster	Engine Cleaner	22 20	South Oamaru South Oamaru	3 years 2 years	The residence of Mr. John Bruce in South Oamaru	78/12183	John Bruce, Father	2 September 1878	Revd. A. B. Todd, C.S.
689	3 September 1878	William Edward Powell Lucy Tipsey	William Edward Powell Lucy Hissey 💍 1878/2207	Bachelor Spinster	Mariner Machinist	36 38	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 5 weeks	The residence of Mr. Charles Edwards in Little Street, Oamaru	78/12184		3 September 1878	Revd. Henry Dewsbury, Wes.
690	5 September 1878	John Samson Roberts Maria Granger	John Sampson Roberts Maria Granger 💍 1878/2990	Bachelor Spinster	Contractor	26 19	Oamaru Cave Valley	4 years 3 years	The Manse, Oamaru	78/13011		5 September 1878	A. B. Todd, Certificate not yet sent
691	9 September 1878	Charles Henry Dodge Margaret Alice McCarthy	Charles Henry Dodge Margaret Alice McCarthy 💍 1878/2952	Bachelor Spinster	Hotelkeeper Housekeeper	32 23	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 2 1/2 years	The Residence of the Revd. William Coleman, Oamaru	78/12997		9 September 1878	Revd. William Coleman, R.C.
692	17 September 1878	Alexander Hannah Janet Forrest Lynch	Alexander Hannah Janet Forret Lynch 💍 1878/2208	Bachelor Spinster	Tailor Domestic Servant	21 24	Oamaru Oamaru	5 years 8 years	The Office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	78/12187		18 September 1878	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
693	18 September 1878	William McMoreith Mary Ann Sniddy	William McIlwraith Mary Ann Smiddy 💍 1878/2988 William McKeown Mary Ann Scott 💍 1878/2814 William Smith Mary Ann Kane 💍 1878/205 William Barton Hill Mary Ann Draisey 💍 1878/2694	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter Domestic Servant	26 years 21 years	Oamaru Oamaru	3 years 5 years	The Manse, Oamaru	78/13009		18 September 1878	Revd. A. B. Todd, C.S.

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).