Intentions to Marry, 1879

Reference: Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages, Notices of intention to marry, Series 8937, R2840391, Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga, Wellington

Imaged by Luke at Archives NZ Wellington, April 30 2025

Page 800

District of Oamaru Quarter ending 30 September 1879

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
768	9 August 1879	Andrew Riddell Eliza Hill	Andrew Riddell Eliza Hill 💍 1879/2118	Bachelor Spinster	Stone-cutter Domestic Servant	24 19	Oamaru Oamaru	3 days 2 1/2 years	The Manse	79/2130	Declaration made that no one in the Colony can give consent	9 August 1879	Revd. A. B. Todd
769	22 August 1879	John Edward Ryan Mary Theresa Hannigan	John Edward Ryan Mary Teresa Hannigan 💍 1879/3234	Bachelor Spinster	Railway Porter	38 19	Oamaru Oamaru	6 months 5 years	St. Patrick's Church	79/2820	Timothy Hannigan Father	22 August 1879	Revd. William Coleman
770	25 August 1879	Edmund Connell Honora Gorman	Edmund Connell Hanora Gorman 💍 1879/3235	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer Servant	27 25	North Town Belt, Oamaru North Town Belt, Oamaru	4 years 15 months	St. Patrick's Church	79/2821	[illegible]	25 August 1879	Revd. William Coleman
771	25 August 1879	Francis Lombardi Catherine McCarty	Francesco Lombardi Catherine McLarty 💍 1879/2099	Bachelor Spinster	Laborer	24 16	Big Hill, Papakaio Peebles	6 months 2 years	The office of the Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru	79/2135	Elizabeth Trainer Mother	25 August 1879	The Registrar of Marriages at Oamaru
772	27 August 1879	John Bradbury Mary Hannagan	John Bradbury Mary Hannagan 💍 1879/3236	Bachelor Spinster	Sailer Servant	38 29	Oamaru Oamaru	2 years 18 months	The residence of the Reverend William Coleman, Oamaru	79/2822	H. Walsh	27 August 1879	Revd. William Coleman
773	30 August 1879	Thomas Stewart Agnes Mitchell	Thomas Stewart Agnes Mitchell 💍 1879/2120	Bachelor Spinster	Blacksmith Servant	28 21	Oamarama Oamarama	3 years 2 months	The Manse	79/2132		30 August 1879	Revd. A. B. Todd
774	4 September 1879	Joseph Daly Mary Ann Heron	Joseph Daly Mary Ann Heron 💍 1879/3237	Widower Spinster	Laborer Servant	25 22	Weston Weston	5 years 6 months	St. Patrick's Church	79/2823	H. Walsh	4 September 1879	Revd. William Coleman
775	4 September 1879	Robert Macdonald Barbara Brown Keen	Robert Macdonald Barbara Brown Keen 💍 1879/2097	Widower Spinster	Builder	49 34	Oamaru Oamaru	12 years 6 years	The residence of Mr. Alexander Watson, Tyne Street, Oamaru	79/2133		4 September 1879	Revd. A. B. Todd

These records have been automatically transcribed and must be verified using the page image (below)

100% Contrast

100% Brightness

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 1894. More registers will be added as the project continues.

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).